Milo de Prieto Doctoral Research Proposal 

Provisional Title

Biolinguistic Creativity: A Neurocognitive Study of Meaning-Making and Mastery in Fine Art Through Divergent Identity

Abstract

This doctoral research examines the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the human drive to make meaning through art, positioning fine art as the highest expression of the brain’s integrative potential. Drawing from biolinguistics, the study traces how the biological foundations of meaning—pre-linguistic and proto-syntactic processes by which the brain begins to pattern and signify—evolve into conscious, neurocognitive mastery through structured learning and creative practice.

This progression follows the brain’s intrinsic Purpose Throughline: from the innate Narrative Imperative to construct meaning, through iterative stages of cognitive mastery (as modeled in the Enhanced Bloom’s Taxonomy and Learning Progressions Theory), toward full neural integration & coherence across the four neurological functions of wellbeing. Building on biolinguistics and neuroaesthetics, the study proposes a model of neurobiological creativity, in which the origin of artistic expression functions as a structural analogue to language—a system through which the brain externalizes its search for meaning.

Within this model, fine art emerges not as cultural elitism but as a neurobiological discipline of integration—where biology, cognition, and expression align. The research focuses on Divergent identities—gender, socio-sexual, and neurological—whose heightened self-awareness and social navigation provide amplified visibility into the brain’s processes of integration, masking, and authenticity: the neural architecture of meaning-making in its most dynamic form.

The project explores both the neurocognitive demands of creating art and the neurobiological response of aesthetic experience, encompassing both the act of creation and the act of perception as shared mechanisms of coherence and self-actualization.

Central to this framework is the concept of Quality of Life as Neural Coherence, modeled through four interacting systems—Rhythmic Homeostasis, Activation & Regulation, Cognitive Patterning & Integration, and Synchrony & Expansion—that together sustain meaning and wellbeing. Fine art offers a direct route to restoring this coherence. In an age where technology risks erasing individuality by outsourcing communication to algorithms, the artist’s development of an authentic voice emerges as both a scientific and existential necessity.

The project will therefore evolve through both scientific investigation and artistic practice. Collaboration with the Faculty of Fine Arts will be essential—not only for its expertise in contemporary artistic research and representation of divergent identities, but also for ensuring that creative expression becomes a living component of the research process itself. Through exhibitions, creative works, and reflective practice, the findings will be made accessible and resonant beyond academia, linking research to society through the arts.

The proposed study therefore establishes a bridge between the biological origins of meaning-making and the applied neurocognitive practice of artistic mastery, positioning the creative act as both a scientific and philosophical inquiry into human coherence.

To understand my background and how this research direction developed, see my profile on ARTESIAN, (my applied research site) by clicking this sentence.

The Three Divergences—gender, neuro, and socio-sexual—belong to a broader theoretical program I have been developing for several years and will continue beyond the doctorate. They provide the structural foundation for my larger research into human variation and neural coherence. Within the PhD itself, these divergences serve a strategic role: they supply the conceptual background for understanding how divergent identities exemplify, clarify, or intensify the neuroecological mechanisms I examine through artistic practice. They are not the central object of the dissertation, but the wider architecture from which its questions emerge.

The 3 Divergences in My Research

My research begins by identifying three structural forms of human variation—existential, neurological, and social—that consistently disrupt dominant norms. These Three Divergences demonstrate that complexity, not binary reduction, is the primary structure of human experience and development.

I propose that these lived variations are not liabilities but opportunities. They illuminate the processes and value of neuroecological integration, offering individuals a path toward profound and sustainable wellbeing—what my framework Neural Coherence Ecology defines as Comprehensive Quality of Life. Within this model, people come to understand not only their uniqueness but also how to develop and apply it as a strength. This generates personal benefit and contributes directly to social coherence. The process requires, and reveals, respect for one’s own individuality and for the individuality of others. In turn, it supports a social contract that depends on diversity rather than merely tolerating it.

These divergences also make visible a broader truth: human reality has never been simple, binary, or monochromatic, despite centuries of imposed reduction used for control and social management. Human existence is dynamically varied—across individuals and across time. This variability requires a society capable of offering space, respect, and curiosity for all manifestations of biology and identity.

Finally, this framework positions divergent individuals as essential to human development. Their perceptual, cognitive, and social adaptations act as keys rather than exceptions. When their patterns of experience are integrated into collective understanding, they provide models for living in adaptive growth rather than in the fear-based survival strategies that dominate the modern era.

This document is a preliminary working draft, intended solely for academic review and discussion with prospective supervisors. It should not be cited or reproduced without the author’s consent.

© 2025 Milo Jordi de Prieto Desmond. All rights reserved.