Creative expression through art is becoming more popular with adults and it gained momentum with adult colouring books two years back.
Previous studies have also shown that creation through art produces various mental and psychological benefits.
But what if you have no artistic skills? Can you still derive psychological benefits and reduce stress?
If you doodle, then there is good news for you, according to a new research from the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA.
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Researchers have found that doodling activates the reward pathways of the brain thereby producing feelings of pleasure, even if you lack artistic skills.
Doodling is a great way to express yourself but it is often underrated as a form of art. We all doodle at some stage in our lives, often when we are thinking about something else or sitting through a boring meeting.
But what makes doodling so appealing and how do other forms of art creation differ in the effects that they have on brain activity?
Few studies have examined the reward pathway activation during visual art task and researchers in this study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine brain activation during three distinct drawing tasks – colouring, doodling and free drawing.
26 healthy participants ( 8 of whom were artists) aged between 18 and 70 years old, engaged in each task for 3 minutes each, separated by equal intervals of rest in between.
Data was collected in pre and post surveys regarding their self-perception of creativity, prior experience with drawing tasks and reflections on participating in the study.
During the course of the study the participant’s brain activity was monitored to measure the blood flow to the brain.
The researchers found that all three tasks resulted in blood flow to the brain but during the rest periods, the blood flow went back to normal.
According to the researchers, the activation of the reward pathway in the prefrontal cortex, triggers feelings of pleasure and reward, during the art creation activities.
The researchers also found that doodling activity resulted in the maximum activation of the prefrontal cortex, followed by free-drawing and then, colouring. However the differences between each task were not statistically significant.
The researchers also examined the difference between artists and non-artists and found that blood flow in artists and non-artists was the same during art-making tasks, suggesting that you don’t have to have artistic skills to reap the benefits of art making.
Among artists, doodling produced the maximum blood flow, while free-drawing led to similar activity in the prefrontal cortex in both artists and non-artists.
However, the colouring activity resulted in reduced blood flow in artists compared to the other two conditions. The researchers speculate that this may due to restrictiveness of pre-drawn shapes and limited choice of media available which offers no free rein in creativity for artists.
Although for all participants, regardless of skill levels, doodling and free-drawing resulted in increased brain activation than colouring.
Doodling is a fantastic way to quickly boost your mood and feel good about yourself. And the best part is that you don’t have to be an artist. After all we all have experience with doodling and taking some time out to indulge in creating art through doodles will do you a world of good.
Source: The Arts in Psychotherapy
