Musical Creativity “Revealed” in Brain Structure: Interplay between Motor, Default Mode and Limbic Networks

Abstract

Creative behaviors are among the most complex that humans engage in, involving not only highly intricate, domain-specific knowledge and skill, but also domain-general processing styles and the affective drive to create. This study presents structural imaging data indicating that musically creative people (as indicated by self-report) have greater cortical surface area or volume in a) regions associated with domain-specific higher-cognitive motor activity and sound processing (dorsal premotor cortex, supplementary and pre-supplementary motor areas, and planum temporale), b) domain-general creative-ideation regions associated with the default mode network (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus, and temporal pole), and c) emotion-related regions (orbitofrontal cortex, temporal pole, and amygdala). These findings suggest that domain-specific musical expertise, default-mode cognitive processing style, and intensity of emotional experience might all coordinate to motivate and facilitate the drive to create music.

Driving the brain towards creativity and intelligence: A network control theory analysis

“…The left STG is considered to play a key role in integrative processing via selective access to distributed cross-modal representations, which is important in forming novel associations that are required in semantic creativity tasks (Shen et al, 2017). The right MTG has also been implicated in several creativity studies (Bashwiner, Wertz, Flores, & Jung, 2016; Chen et al, 2016; Cousijn, Koolschijn, Zanolie, Kleibeuker, & Crone, 2014; Cousijn, Zanolie, et al, 2014). For example, a recent resting-state study found that divergent thinking ability was related to increased functional connectivity between the right MTG and post-central gyrus (Cousijn, Zanolie, et al, 2014).…”

Brain network profiling defines functionally specialized cortical networks

“…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.…”

Un estudio exploratorio de la relación entre la inteligencia musical, viso-espacial, corporal-cinestésica y creatividad motriz en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje

“…Estas áreas destacadas son las siguientes: a) Regiones asociadas con la actividad específica del dominio cognitivo motor y mejor procesamiento de sonido (corteza dorsal premotora y áreas motoras pre-suplementarias y plano temporal); b) Regiones de ideación creativa de dominio general asociadas a la red en modo automático o red por defecto (corteza dorsomedial prefrontal, la circunvolución temporal media y el polo temporal); y c) Regiones relacionadas con las emociones (corteza orbitofrontal, polo temporal y la amígdala) (Bashwiner et al, 2016).…”

“…Aunque un estudio actual, ya mencionado anteriormente, señala que personas creativas bajo el dominio musical presentan mayor área de superficie cortical en distintas regiones, entre ellas la asociada con la actividad específica del dominio cognitivo motor y mejor procesamiento del sonido, cuyas áreas son corteza dorsal premotora, áreas motoras suplementarias y plano temporal (Bashwiner et al, 2016).…”

“…Esto quiere decir que no existe relación entre la inteligencia musical y la creatividad motriz. Sin embargo, un estudio actual señala que las personas creativas en el dominio musical presentan mayor área de superficie cortical en distintas regiones del cerebro, entre ellas las asociadas a la actividad específica del dominio cognitivo motor y mejor procesamiento del sonido (Bashwiner et al, 2016).…”