A meta‐analysis of neuroimaging studies on divergent thinking using activation likelihood estimation

Abstract

In this study, an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis was used to conduct a quantitative investigation of neuroimaging studies on divergent thinking. Based on the ALE results, the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies showed that distributed brain regions were more active under divergent thinking tasks (DTTs) than those under control tasks, but a large portion of the brain regions were deactivated. The ALE results indicated that the brain networks of the creative idea generation in DTTs may be composed of the lateral prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex [such as the inferior parietal lobule (BA 40) and precuneus (BA 7)], anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (BA 32), and several regions in the temporal cortex [such as the left middle temporal gyrus (BA 39), and left fusiform gyrus (BA 37)]. The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46) was related to selecting the loosely and remotely associated concepts and organizing them into creative ideas, whereas the ACC (BA 32) was related to observing and forming distant semantic associations in performing DTTs. The posterior parietal cortex may be involved in the semantic information related to the retrieval and buffering of the formed creative ideas, and several regions in the temporal cortex may be related to the stored long-term memory. In addition, the ALE results of the structural studies showed that divergent thinking was related to the dopaminergic system (e.g., left caudate and claustrum). Based on the ALE results, both fMRI and structural MRI studies could uncover the neural basis of divergent thinking from different aspects (e.g., specific cognitive processing and stable individual difference of cognitive capability).

Creative constraints: Brain activity and network dynamics underlying semantic interference during idea production

“…The left IFG has previously been implicated in fMRI studies using the verb generation task (Crescentini et al, 2010; Thompson-Schill, 2003), and it has shown consistent activation in neuroimaging studies of creative cognition (Gonen-Yaacovi et al, 2013; Wu et al, 2015). A substantial body of evidence has shown that the left IFG supports semantic retrieval processes, particularly during cognitive tasks involving the search and selection of target concepts among a large set of competing alternatives (Crescentini et al, 2010; Grindrod et al, 2008).…”

“…The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), for example, has been implicated in studies of general creative cognitive processing (Chen et al, in press; Gonen-Yaacovi et al, 2013; Wu et al, 2015) and artistic performance (Beaty, 2015; Boccia et al, 2015; Pinho et al, 2014, 2016). DLPFC activation during creative task performance is thought to reflect the involvement of executive control processes (Beaty et al, 2016; Benedek et al, 2014a; Chen et al, 2015, in press).…”

Nicotine withdrawal alters neural responses to psychosocial stress

“…Precuneus activity is thought to be associated with self-referential thought (Cavanna and Trimble 2006) and this activity must be suppressed in order to exert effortful control over behavior (Raichle et al 2001). Likewise, deactivation of the SMG (BA 40) may be related to inhibition of irrelevant cognitive processes (Fink et al 2009; Wu et al 2015). Therefore, we speculate that the stress-induced increase in BOLD signal change in the SMG, IFG, and Precuneus may be attributed to difficulty suppressing intrusive thoughts as a result of negative feedback during the stress condition.…”

Creative Cognition and Brain Network Dynamics

“…[52]). Although memory retrieval appears to play an important role in idea generation, cognitive control systems can also be recruited to evaluate and modify candidate ideas to meet specific goals, in line with behavioral [53–59] and neuroimaging [37, 60–64] evidence showing consistent involvement of executive mechanisms in creative thought. Thus, the control and default networks may cooperate to leverage both top-down (executive) and bottom-up (generative) processes during creative cognition.…”