Different brain structures associated with artistic and scientific creativity: a voxel-based morphometry study

Abstract

Creativity is the ability to produce original and valuable ideas or behaviors. In real life, artistic and scientific creativity promoted the development of human civilization; however, to date, no studies have systematically investigated differences in the brain structures responsible for artistic and scientific creativity in a large sample. Using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), this study identified differences in regional gray matter volume (GMV) across the brain between artistic and scientific creativity (assessed by the Creative Achievement Questionnaire) in 356 young, healthy subjects. The results showed that artistic creativity was significantly negatively associated with the regional GMV of the supplementary motor area (SMA) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In contrast, scientific creativity was significantly positively correlated with the regional GMV of the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and left inferior occipital gyrus (IOG). Overall, artistic creativity was associated with the salience network (SN), whereas scientific creativity was associated with the executive attention network and semantic processing. These results may provide an effective marker that can be used to predict and evaluate individuals’ creative performance in the fields of science and art.

Brain network profiling defines functionally specialized cortical networks

“…Cortical representations of the principal components are illustrated in Figures S7 and S8 [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] DMN1 was more connected with Limb, and DMN2 was more connected to CON and FPN. Recent studies reported the involvement of DMN regions in narrative comprehension (Simony, Honey, Chen, et al, 2016) and, together with limbic regions, in creative processes (Beaty, Benedek, Silvia, & Schacter, 2017;Shi, Cao, Chen, Zhuang, & Qiu, 2017) as well as in the decoding of emotions conveyed by music (Bashwiner, Wertz, Flores, & Jung, 2016). Considering this evidence, we suggest a prominent role of lDMN in social and linguistic tasks (see also "Insights into the language system" section), and a stronger involvement of DMN1 in autobiographical, imaginative, and emotional/affective functions.…”

“…Each black dot represents a single parcel. Recent studies reported the involvement of DMN regions in narrative comprehension (Simony, Honey, Chen, et al, 2016) and, together with limbic regions, in creative processes (Beaty, Benedek, Silvia, & Schacter, 2017;Shi, Cao, Chen, Zhuang, & Qiu, 2017) as well as in the decoding of emotions conveyed by music (Bashwiner, Wertz, Flores, & Jung, 2016). Higher color intensity indicates higher probability density.…”

Network neuroscience of creative cognition: mapping cognitive mechanisms and individual differences in the creative brain

“…Although brain stimulation has already shown promise in identifying brain regions supporting creative thinking [48,49], an interesting next step would be to modulate interactions between these regions, particularly nodes within DN and ECN. Moreover, future individual differences research could examine whether connectivity patterns predictive of domain-general creative thinking (e.g., divergent thinking; [50]) extend to predict domain-specific creative performance [51,52], such as improvisation [53][54][55][56][57][58], poetry composition [59], visual creativity [5,60], or creative writing [61,62]. These are only a few potential directions for neuroscience research in what promises to be an exciting pursuit for the foreseeable future in mapping the creative brain.…”

The neurocognitive gains of diagnostic reasoning training using simulated interactive veterinary cases

“…According to Binder et al 44 , these seven regions were identified to form the semantic network system. Moreover, on comparing artistic and scientific creativity, Shi et al 49 found a positive correlation between the gray matters of the L-MFG and IOG and scientific creativity, emphasizing the crucial role of semantic reasoning in scientific rather than artistic achievements. Also the significant activities observed in the left MTG and FuG were consistent with a recent metaanalysis study 50 , where the activities of the left MTG and FuG were attributed to creative ideation during semantic divergent thinking tasks.…”