“In our digital age, we’re drowning in information. The web offers us infinite data points—news stories, tweets, wikis, status updates, etc—but very little to connect the dots or illuminate the larger patterns linking them together. Here at Big Think, we believe that success in the future is about knowing the ideas that allow you to manage and master this universe of information. Therefore, we aim to help you move above and beyond random information, toward real knowledge, offering big ideas from fields outside your own that you can apply toward the questions and challenges in your own life.”

For example, what do originality and invention look like in the brain? In this conversation with The New York Times columnist Carl Zimmer as part of Big Think’s partnership with 92Y’s Seven Days of Genius series, neuroscientist Heather Berlin explains current research into creative “flow states,” examining what happens in the brain when rappers and jazz musicians improvise.

This is the latest installment in an exclusive, week-long video series of today’s brightest minds exploring the theory of genius. You can watch this one by clicking here.

To learn more about Heather and her work, please click here.

To learn more about Big Think, please click here.