The Neural Mechanism And The Functional Connectivity Of Creativity

Creativity is imperative to the progression of civilization and is central to cultural life. Many neuroimaging studies have investigated the patterns of functional activity in the brain during different creative tasks, and the structural and functional characteristics of the highly creative individuals. However, few studies have investigated resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in the brain related to individual differences in creativity, and it is still unclear whether the RSFC underlying creativity can be changed by training. In addition, there is still a question whether creative cognition (or the generation of alternative uses, respectively) can be improved effectively by means of cognitive stimulation (confronting individuals with ideas produced by other people) and how the stimulation effects are reflected at the level of the brain. Therefore, here, we used two studies to solve these two problems:In the research1, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the relationship between RSFC and creativity (divergent thinking, measured by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking) to explore whether RSFC can be influenced by cognitive stimulation. The results of269adults showed that creativity was positively correlated with the strength of RSFC between the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the middle temporal gyrus (mTG). In addition, behavioral data showed that cognitive stimulation (creativity training) was successful in enhancing originality in a subset of the original participants (n=34). Of particular interest was the increased RSFC between the mPFC and the mTG associated with lower creativity. Taken together, these results suggested that increased RSFC between the mPFC and the mTG in the regions of the default mode network might be crucial to creativity, and that RSFC between the mPFC and mTG could be improved by means of cognitive stimulation (reflecting creativity training-induced changes in functional connectivity). In the research2, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in order to investigate the neurophysiological effects of cognitive stimulation via idea sharing in the context of creative idea generation. Thirty-four participants are requested to generate alternative uses of conventional everyday objects during fMRI recording (no-cue condition). This task is additionally presented in two different variants. In the cue condition, participants perform the AU task subsequent to a short cognitive stimulation intervention in which they are confronted with ideas of other people, which is known as effective principle in group-based brainstorming techniques. Our results showed that:The cue condition compared to the no-cue condition was associated with higher activation in the bilateral superior frontal gyrus (BA8), right medial frontal gyrus (BA10) and right precuneus (BA7). The frontal activation had been frequently linked to the performance of tasks that required creativity. Speculatively, the superior frontal gyrus might be associated with retrieval and mental scanning of memories and the medial frontal gyrus might contribute to the semantic processing. Moreover, the right precuneus might be related to semantic information integration and retrieval. Taken together, these findings specifically demonstrated that cognitive stimulation via the exposure to other people’s ideas had beneficial effects on creative cognition and training effects were also apparent at the level of the brain.