Editing Writer's block (section)

===Physiological and neurological basis===
Physiological and neurological bases of writer's block have been suggested. Under stress, a human brain will  "shift control from the [[cerebral cortex]] to the [[limbic system]]".<ref name="writer's brain">{{cite web|last=Bane|first=Rosanne|url=https://quitwork.club/The-Writers-Brain-Rosanne-Bane41-50_1.pdf|title=The Writer's Brain: What Neurology Tells Us about Teaching Creative Writing|date=February 2010|access-date=4 December 2014|archive-date=June 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628015459/http://quitwork.club/The-Writers-Brain-Rosanne-Bane41-50_1.pdf|s2cid=146850178}}</ref> The limbic system is associated with the instinctual processes, such as "fight or flight" response; and behavior that is based on "deeply engrained training". The limited input from the cerebral cortex hinders a person's creative processes, which is replaced by the behaviors associated with the limbic system. The person is often unaware of the change, which may lead them to believe they are creatively "blocked".<ref name="writer's brain"/> {{Unreliable source?|date=February 2024}}

In her 2004 book ''The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain'', the writer and [[neurology|neurologist]] [[Alice Weaver Flaherty|Alice W. Flaherty]] has argued that literary creativity is a function of specific [[List of regions in the human brain|areas of the brain]], and that block may be the result of brain activity being disrupted in those areas.<ref name=":0">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/06/14/040614fa_fact|first=Joan|last=Acolella|title=Blocked: why do writers stop writing?|magazine=The New Yorker|date=14 June 2004}}</ref> Flaherty suggested in her writing that there are many diseases that may impact one's ability to write. One of which she refers to is [[hypergraphia]], or the intensive desire to write. She points out that in this condition, the patient's temporal lobe is afflicted, usually by damage, and it may be the same changes in this area of the brain that can contribute to writer's-blocking behaviors.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain|last=Flaherty, Alice Weaver|isbn=978-0547525099|oclc=1037196899|year= 2015|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt }}</ref> Not to be confused with writer's block, [[agraphia]] is a neurological disorder caused by trauma or stroke causing difficulty in communicating through writing. Agraphia cannot be treated directly, but it is possible to relearn certain writing abilities.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Oppenheim|first=Lois|date=June 2005|title=Book Reviews: The midnight disease: The drive to write, writer's block, and the creative brain. By Alice W. Flaherty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004, 320 pp.|journal=Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association|volume=53|issue=2|pages=630–634|doi=10.1177/00030651050530022401|s2cid=143529086|issn=0003-0651}}</ref>