Numerous cases have shown that insight appears to occur when inventions were induced by heuristic prototypes in the history of invention. From the classical story of Luban invented the saw which drew inspiration from acrodont couch grass to the legend of Watt invented the elaborate steam engine inspired by looking at a pot of boiling water, too many such cases suggested that'prototype heuristics" might be an important way of thinking in inventions. Based on this process, the theory of prototype heuristics during insight problem solving was raised. In particular, prototype heuristics propositions that'automatic activation of a prototype'and'applying the key heuristic information of the prototype'is critical point to heuristic insight. However, the neural basis of insight thinking (including the brain mechanism of insight induced by heuristic prototype) is still stuck in researches of solving unscientific problems due to the complexity of the processing of the scientific innovation. Based on the latest scientific inventions in which scientists drew inspiration from heuristic prototypes, the present study has complied the material database of creative problem for experiments. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP), the present study aims to explore the neural mechanisms of insight induced by heuristic prototype in invention.Firstly, based on the insight theory of prototype heuristics, stduy1has complied 'the material database of creative problem for experiments'with numerous indicators through3behavioral experiments step by step. Specifically, in Experiment1, the latest scientific inventions (36examples) in which scientists drew inspiration from heuristic prototypes from various areas were collected. And the collected examples should meet the following standards, that is, heuristics by a prototype, latest, and easy to understand. Using Williams'creative tendency scale, Experiment2tested the validity of collected examples, which was considered as the experimental material for insight. Based on the Experiment1and2, Experiment3further collected examples, and complied the material database of creative problem for experiments with84examples at last. There are strict criterions for the process of establishment. The validity of collected examples was supported by Williams'creative tendency scale. Thus, these examples could provide confirmed and effective experimental material to investigate the cognitive and brain mechanism of insight induced by heuristic prototype in invention.Then, in Study2, we selected examples from'the material database of creative problem for experiments'as experimental materials in using'prototype learning-creative problem testing'paradigm to explore the neural basis of insight induced by heuristic prototype in invention. There are3experiments in Study2, which used the fMRI and ERP techniques. Specifically, in Experiment4, we used fMRI to explore the neural basis of applying the key heuristic information of the prototype directly by presenting volunteer college students with a problem(creative problem or routine problem) after they had learned a relative heuristic prototype (named'one to one' paradigm). In actual life, the reason why produce a creative idea is so difficult is that the heuristic prototype is usually ignored. The'one to one'paradigm, in which participants could resolve the relative problem quickly according to the heuristic prototypes, is similar to the process of'analogical transfer'. Thus, the process of'one to one' paradigm did not include the process of'automatic activation of a prototype'. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out'group to group'paradigm with higher validity of ecology. In Experiment5, we used fMRI to investigate the neural basis of automatic activation of heuristic prototype and applying the key heuristic information of the prototype by presenting the problem (creative problem or routine problem) randomly after participants had learned all heuristics prototypes. The stimuli in Experiment5were similar to Experiment4. However, participants were required to learn all65heuristic prototypes one day before the experiment, and then resolve65relative problems randomly in the MRI scanner. Therefore, in addition to acquire new methods to resolve problems by applying the key heuristic information of a prototype, participants firstly need to activate the related heuristic prototypes from65prototypes. The pattern of the neural activity from the contrast between creative problem and routine problem in Experiment5might be involved in'automatic activation of heuristic prototype'as well as'applying the key heuristic information of a prototype'. Thus, the pattern of the neural activity from the contrast between Experiment4and5might reflect the process of'automatic activation of heuristic prototype'indirectly. The results of Experiments4and5showed that the right lingual gyrus might be involved in forming novel associations applying the key heuristic information of a prototype, while the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex might be involved in the automatic activation of the heuristic prototype. Based on the Experiment4and5, Experiment6explored the time course of scientific innovation induced by heuristic information in using ERPs. In Experiment6,'5heuristic information prototypes learning-5problems testing'model was adopted, the result indicated that P300most likely reflects the automatic activation of the heuristic prototype, while N400and late negativity could reflect the process of semantic integration due to the application of heuristic information.In actual life, when people encounter an invention problem and have not found the sally port, they might come across a heuristic prototype that seems superficially irrelevant to the problem and find the new idea from the prototype for solving the problem. Insightful inspiration is open to those well prepared for it. Therefore, when come across a heuristic prototype people would activate a heuristic prototype effectively on condition that they have already had the'problem consciousnesses'. In Study3(including Experiment7), we adopted the'group to group' paradigm in using fMRI to explore the neural mechanism for catching inspiration in scientific innovation induced by heuristic information. In Experiment7, the participants were asked to resolve all42creative problems (selected from'the material database of creative problem for experiments') a day before the experiment. In the MRI scanner,84heuristic prototypes were presented randomly. There are42heuristic prototypes (which were expected to produce the phenomenon of the inspiration) are related to the42creative problems, another42heuristic prototypes (which were considered as baseline) have nothing to do with the42creative problems. The pattern of the neural activity from the contrast between inspiration and baseline in Experiment7showed that left precuneus, left middle temporal gyrus, and left middle frontal gyrus might be related to the process of insight. Specifically, the precuneus might be involved in the automatic retrieval of invention problem; the left middle frontal gyrus is probably involved in applying heuristic information from the prototype to form novel associations, while the left middle temporal gyrus is probably involved in semantic processing.Together with the7experiments in the present study, the results indicated that, firstly,'the material database of creative problem for experiments'could provide confirmed and effective experimental material to investigate the cognitive and brain mechanism of insight induced by heuristic prototype in invention. Secondly, P300most likely reflects the automatic activation of the heuristic prototype, while N400and late negativity could reflect the process of semantic integration due to the application of heuristic information. Thirdly, the brain mechanism of forming new solution based on the connection between the prototype and problem might be modulated by the experimental paradigm (e.g.,'prototype-problem'/'problem-prototype'). Fourthly, the precuneus might be involved in the automatic retrieval of heuristic information (or creative problem), which might be the most important process in scientific creativity. Fifthly, the process of automatic activation is probably resulted from the common semantic component between the prototype and problem. We believe these findings may have important theory significance to understand the essence of human creative thinking as well as practical significance to stimulate and nurture human creativity.
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