Creative children often underachieve in traditional educational settings. They are described as scatterbrains, uninterested, and unable to focus on the required material, often lost in their daydreams. In contrast, students who perform best academically are often not very creative. Creative individuals also report the need for a hypofocused state for the generation of novel ideas. Recent brain research revealed a compelling explanation for this phenomenon through the study of resting-state brain networks. This session describes how the functioning of these networks contributes to the contrary but also complimentary nature of focused attention and creativity.