Rachmaninoff or Einstein?

I've always been relatively interested in the human brain.  The brain, as an object bears so much subjectivity surrounding it.  Has the worlds greatest genius been killed in their 20s, long before they were able to reach potential (or aborted, but that's for Elephants)?  Or was the genius of Rachmaninoff perhaps greater than that of Einstein? 


As I've studied the brain a little in my spare time I've become very interested in the brains function as it is a reflection of God's genius.  I love creativity, and the inborn creative nature of mankind.  Even the crayon drawings of young children far surpass the creativity of any other species.  Young children draw ties and make neurological connections that allow them to create, remember, and employ.  Dr. Charles Limb, who's religious affiliation is unknown to myself, posted a very interesting video on TED.com


I wrote a paper for my High School Human Anatomy and Physiology Class on the motor detriment of damage to the occipital lobe compared to the parietal lobe.  If a person loses their ability to see how is this better or worse for their ability to autonomously navigate life compared to the dysfunction of the parietal lobe...  I concluded, in my pseudo-academic treatise, that the spacial concept provided by the parietal lobe far outweighs the visual stimulus offered by a functioning occipital lobe.  


As a creative type in the artistic world for three years, and an avid Jazz enthusiast, I really enjoyed Dr. Charles Limb's introductory conversation on the gravity of the frontal lobe's importance in creative endeavors.  He showcased Blood Oxygen Level Imaging of the frontal lobe during jazz improvisational piano playing, and during rap improvisation.  His study didn't really answer any questions, however, he did open the doors on a very interesting conversation.


Speculations and hopeful Implications: 
If in fact the areas that are activated during creativity are the same that are activated for phono-linguistics there could be a very significant implication to speech therapy when combined with creative arts.  A child that does not speak well, could possibly stimulate their lingual gyrus by painting...  This wouldn't even require stimulus across the basal parietotemporal line, but could be isolated to the frontal lobe and have the same advantageous effect.  I'm no expert in art or speech therapy, but I'm sure there is a doctoral dissertation buried somewhere in all this (take a few courses in functional magnetic resonance imaging).


I also see a possibility whereby a person engaging in the creative arts could be demonstrating a high linguistic acumen.  This has very significant implications into the standardized testing world.  If creativity is a tangible language, with measurable metrics a creative person's capability could be quantified and rewarded.  However if these test begin to show that the Brodmann area were what was the primary reactor this would be totally irrelevant.


If I were a cultural anthropologist I would be ravenously consuming data on this quote though: "Rap serves the same function socially as Jazz did in its day." Dr. Charles Limb.  I think this could be a very interesting compare/contrast paper, or even fodder for any young hip-hop artist sick of taking flack.

Check out my new article on what I believe is really behind the recent shootings in Arizona!  With all of the hype and rhetoric we can't fail to see the forest for the trees.