Pictionary-based fMRI paradigm to study the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity

Saggar, Manish; Quintin, Eve-Marie; Kienitz, Eliza; Bott, Nicholas T.; Sun, Zhongren; Hong, Wei-Chen; Chien, Yin-Hsuan; Liu, Ning; Dougherty, Robert F.; Royalty, Adam; Hawthorne, Grace; Reiss, Allan L.

doi:10.1038/srep10894

Cited by 95 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…This seems to indicate that higher creativity was associated with less controlled memory retrieval or lower response inhibition. In line with similar research findings [Park et al, ; Saggar et al, ], this finding may also hint at the possibility that individuals with more creative potential show higher neural efficiency (less brain activation) while solving the task. However, this finding needs replication.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Affective creativity meets classic creativity in the scanner

Perchtold

Papousek

Koschutnig

et al. 2017

Human Brain Mapping

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The investigation of neurocognitive processes underlying more real-life creative behavior is among the greatest challenges in creativity research. In this fMRI study, we addressed this issue by investigating functional patterns of brain activity while participants were required to be creative in an affective context. Affective creativity was assessed in terms of individual's inventiveness in generating alternative appraisals for anger-evoking events, which has recently emerged as a new ability concept in cognitive reappraisal research. In addition, a classic divergent thinking task was administered. Both creativity tasks yielded strong activation in left prefrontal regions, indicating their shared cognitive processing demands like the inhibition of prepotent responses, shifting between different perspectives and controlled memory retrieval. Regarding task-specific differences, classic creative ideation activated a characteristic divergent thinking network comprising the left supramarginal, inferior temporal, and inferior frontal gyri. Affective creativity on the other hand specifically recruited the right superior frontal gyrus, presumably involved in the postretrieval monitoring of reappraisal success, and core hubs of the default-mode network, which are also implicated in social cognition. As a whole, by taking creativity research to the realm of emotion, this study advances our understanding of how more real-life creativity is rooted in the brain. Hum Brain Mapp 39:393-406, 2018.V C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Affective creativity meets classic creativity in the scanner

Perchtold

Papousek

Koschutnig

et al. 2017

Human Brain Mapping

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“…We also found common activation of the cerebellum and subcortical structures (e.g., caudate) in the generative conditions compared to the control condition. Although we did not make predictions about the involvement of these regions, their activation is consistent with recent neuroimaging research on creative cognition, such as studies implicating the cerebellum (Saggar et al, 2015, in press) and caudate (Jauk et al, 2015). Notably, the only difference that emerged across generative conditions when contrasted with the control task was unique activation of the right anterior insula during constrained generation.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

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

et al. 2017

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Functional neuroimaging research has recently revealed brain network interactions during performance on creative thinking tasks—particularly among regions of the default and executive control networks—but the cognitive mechanisms related to these interactions remain poorly understood. Here we test the hypothesis that the executive control network can interact with the default network to inhibit salient conceptual knowledge (i.e., pre-potent responses) elicited from memory during creative idea production. Participants studied common noun-verb pairs and were given a cued-recall test with corrective feedback to strengthen the paired association in memory. They then completed a verb generation task that presented either a previously studied noun (high-constraint) or an unstudied noun (low-constraint), and were asked to “think creatively” while searching for a novel verb to relate to the presented noun. Latent Semantic Analysis of verbal responses showed decreased semantic distance values in the high-constraint (i.e., interference) condition, which corresponded to increased neural activity within regions of the default (posterior cingulate cortex and bilateral angular gyri), salience (right anterior insula), and executive control (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) networks. Independent component analysis of intrinsic functional connectivity networks extended this finding by revealing differential interactions among these large-scale networks across the task conditions. The results suggest that interactions between the default and executive control networks underlie response inhibition during constrained idea production, providing insight into specific neurocognitive mechanisms supporting creative cognition.

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“…Other regions, such as the frontostriatal brain circuitries and subcortical dopaminergic network, were also engaged in creativity (Boot, Baas, van Gaal, Cools, & De Dreu, 2017;Tik et al, 2018). Even cerebellum activation, cerebral-cerebellar connectivity, and SMN-DMN connectivity associated with creative thinking have been identified and discussed in previous studies (Saggar et al, 2015;Sun et al, 2019). Obviously, the potential neurobiological basis of creativity may involve a wide range of brain regions.…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 92%

Brain flexibility associated with need for cognition contributes to creative achievement

Zhuang

Liu

et al. 2019

Psychophysiology

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Advances in graph‐theoretic models of networks have made it possible to investigate the topological properties of the human brain across time and space. Brain flexibility is defined as the frequency with which brain regions switch between different functional modules over time and has been shown to correlate with higher‐order cognitive functions. Need for cognition (NFC) refers to a personality trait to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors and usually has a positive effect on diverse cognitive activities (e.g., creativity), which may also be closely related to brain flexibility. Here, we tested whether the flexibility of a large‐scale brain network associated with NFC facilitated creative achievement. Robust correlation analyses showed that NFC correlates with the flexibility of the insula, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the putamen at the node level. Several large‐scale brain networks whose flexibility also correlated with NFC, including the default mode network, salience network, subcortical network, ventral attention network, and control network, imply that higher NFC individuals may exhibit better cognitive abilities, such as executive control, salient detection, spontaneous thought, and motivation function. Interestingly, only global flexibility acted as a mediator in the relationship between NFC and creative achievement, suggesting that the mediating mechanism may involve an interaction between distinct regions or large‐scale networks across the entire brain instead of the functional characteristic of local regions. Together, we demonstrate that the higher NFC is, the more flexible the brain, which may provide a potential insight into the acquisition of creative achievement.

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Pictionary-based fMRI paradigm to study the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity

Cited by 95 publications

References 50 publications

Affective creativity meets classic creativity in the scanner

Affective creativity meets classic creativity in the scanner

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

Brain flexibility associated with need for cognition contributes to creative achievement

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