Creative Connections: Computational Semantic Distance Captures Individual Creativity and Resting-State Functional Connectivity

Abstract

Recent studies of creative cognition have revealed interactions between functional brain networks involved in the generation of novel ideas; however, the neural basis of creativity is highly complex and presents a great challenge in the field of cognitive neuroscience, partly because of ambiguity around how to assess creativity. We applied a novel computational method of verbal creativity assessment—semantic distance—and performed weighted degree functional connectivity analyses to explore how individual differences in assembly of resting-state networks are associated with this objective creativity assessment. To measure creative performance, a sample of healthy adults ( n = 175) completed a battery of divergent thinking (DT) tasks, in which they were asked to think of unusual uses for everyday objects. Computational semantic models were applied to calculate the semantic distance between objects and responses to obtain an objective measure of DT performance. All participants underwent resting-state imaging, from which we computed voxel-wise connectivity matrices between all gray matter voxels. A linear regression analysis was applied between DT and weighted degree of the connectivity matrices. Our analysis revealed a significant connectivity decrease in the visual-temporal and parietal regions, in relation to increased levels of DT. Link-level analyses showed higher local connectivity within visual regions was associated with lower DT, whereas projections from the precuneus to the right inferior occipital and temporal cortex were positively associated with DT. Our results demonstrate differential patterns of resting-state connectivity associated with individual creative thinking ability, extending past work using a new application to automatically assess creativity via semantic distance.

Free association ability distinguishes highly creative artists from scientists: Findings from the Big-C Project.

“…Semantic distance is increasingly used in creativity research to objectively quantify conceptual distance on verbal tasks (including WATs) by computing the inverse of the cosine similarity (i.e., 1-similarity) between word vectors in high-dimensional semantic space (Hass, 2017a(Hass, , 2017bKenett, 2019). Several studies have found that semantic distance values correlate positively with human judgments of novelty (Dumas & Dunbar, 2014;Heinen & Johnson, 2018) and creativity (Orwig et al, 2021;Beaty & Johnson, 2021), as well as established measures of creativity (e.g., creative achievement)-providing evidence for the validity of this automated approach (Gray et al, 2019;.…”

Creativity is our gig: Focusing on the positive and practical.

“…Johnson et al (2021) further found it also underused in the actual creative process. New computational programs measure idea diversity by looking at the semantic distances between words or concepts (Beaty & Johnson, 2021; Green, 2016; Orwig et al, 2021). This blend of theoretical advancement and methodological innovation and refinement is incredibly promising.…”

La medición de la creatividad en destinos urbano-culturales españoles

“…La neurociencia trata de dar repuesta a los procesos fisiológicos de la creatividad en las personas, estudiando tanto su comportamiento, como los diversos factores que pueden influir en el proceso creativo y los estímulos cerebrales que lo desencadenan (Zabelina, 2018;Zabelina, Hechtman, Saporta, Grunewald & Beeman, 2020). Por otro lado, cabe destacar el importante papel de la psicología, desde la cual se ha trabajado para comprender la creatividad partiendo de diversos estados mentales y su impacto en el desarrollo de ésta (Orwig, Diez, Vannini Beaty & Sepulcre, 2021).…”