The Neural Correlates Of Malevolent Creative Idea Generation

Creativity always is well-intentioned in the eyes of the public.Creativity promotes social development,brings about technological progress,and provides individuals with the ability to succeed,Creativity is not good or bad,but the consequences of creativity are positive as well as negative effects,which is the dark side of creativity,on society and human beings.Malevolent creativity is defined as the ability of harming other people deliberately as one of dark side of creativity.Researches on malevolent creativity are still at an initial stage,once malevolent creativity is implemented,it will inevitably be accompanied by unethical and legal behaviors,which will harm others and the society.Therefore,it is necessary to understand the neural correlates of malevolent creativity to effectively decrease the negative consequences.What are the structural and functional foundations of the brain associated with malevolent creative idea generation? Is there a unique brain network connectivity in malevolent creative ideation processing? Is there a unique pattern of brain regions activation during malevolent creative ideation? These questions are still unclear.Therefore,this study investigated the neural correlates of malevolent creative idea generation,which is a part of malevolent creativity,using multi-modality data.Five studies were designed to explore relevant research questions using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging(s MRI/f MRI)and transcranial direct current stimulation(t DCS)techniques.In study 1,we explored the structural basis of malevolent creative idea generation.We collected s MRI data of 52 participants,and calculated the correlation between brain structure(i.e.cortical thickness and sulcus depth)and malevolent creative scores(originality and malevolence).The results showed that the sulcus depth of the right posterior central gyrus had a positive relation with malevolence scores.The right posterior central gyrus is important for malevolent creative ideation.We explored the functional basis related to malevolent creative idea generation in study 2.We collected resting-state f MRI of 51 participants,and calculated the correlation between the resting-state functional brain network and malevolent creativity scores(fluency,originality and malevolence).The originality scores of malevolent creative idea generation positively related to betweenness centrality of the right superior frontal gyrus(default mode network,DMN).The malevolent scores of malevolent creative idea generation positively related to local efficiency of the right cerebellum IX area(DMN).It suggested that DMN was associated with malevolent creative performance.Study 3 was performed to explore the similar and different brain regions between malevolent creative idea generation and control tasks.We collected the f MRI data for 34 participants in malevolent and benevolent creative idea generation,and realistic presented problems tasks to compare similarity and difference in brain activation and function connectivity.The results showed that the right middle frontal gyrus and left calcarine fissure showed higher activation in the malevolent creative idea generation than benevolent creative idea generation.Functional connectivity between the right middle frontal gyrus,subcortical region and posterior cingulate gyrus were lower in the malevolent creative idea generation compared to benevolent creative idea generation.There was no significant difference between malevolent creative idea generation and realistic presented problems tasks.Similar brain regions for malevolent and benevolent creative idea generation were distributed in the inferior frontal gyrus,superior frontal gyrus,occipital lobe and angular gyrus.On the one hand,the similarity may be caused by the task between malevolent and benevolent creative idea generation.On the other hand,the brain regions,which involved in the common creative idea generation,also involved in malevolent and benevolent creative idea generation;The difference was found in the brain regions associated with emotion processing and response inhibition between malevolent and benevolent creative idea generation.We explored the brain network patterns in different stages of malevolent creative idea generation in study 4,and collected f MRI data from 34 subjects during malevolent,benevolent and common creative idea generation tasks to compare the brain network discrepancy in varying stages of the three tasks.The results showed that the brain patterns of malevolent creative idea generation are similar to common creative idea generation,including the default network,central executive network,and salience network.Meanwhile,the results showed that there were unique network patterns in malevolent creative idea generation,including emotional process(e.g.,sensorimotor,visual and reward networks)and networks associated with social cognitive processes(e.g.,the DMN).And it increased gradually in the middle and late period of the malevolent creative idea generation.In addition,network flexibility of the networks associated with social cognitive processes(e.g.,DMN)was significantly higher in the malevolent creative idea generation than in the benevolent creative idea generation.The brain network of malevolent creative idea generation and common creative idea generation were semblable,but unique brain networks involved in malevolent creative idea generation,especially the brain networks involved in emotion processing and social cognition.We explored the causal relationship between malevolent creative idea generation and emotionrelated brain regions in study 5.We recruited 98 participants and explored the causal relationship between the malevolence creative idea generation and brain regions associated with emotion recognition in study 5a.We found that(1)it did not affect emotion regulation,but could affect emotion recognition when electrical stimulation was on the right posterior central gyrus;(2)The originality was lower in posttest after taste anode stimulus and pseudo-stimulus,was higher in posttest after taste cathode stimulus.The fluency was lower in posttest after taste anode stimulus,was higher in posttest after taste cathode stimulus and pseudo-stimulus.(3)There was no significant difference between pretest and posttest in the benevolent creative idea generation.We recruited 91 participants and explored the causal relationship between the malevolent creative idea generation and brain regions associated with emotion regulation in study 5b.We found that(1)electrical stimulation on the right middle frontal gyrus did not affect emotion recognition,but could affect emotion feeling and regulation.(2)There was no significant difference between pretest and posttest in the malevolent and benevolent creative idea generation.The posterior central gyrus is a key brain region in malevolent creative ideation,when decreased activity of the posterior central gyrus would increase malevolent creative ideation performance.To summarize,it presents the following characteristics in malevolent creative idea generation.First,the brain networks suggested similar activation and connectivity pattern between malevolent and common creative idea generation,which showed interaction between default,salient,and central executive networks.Second,the brain regions,which involved in social cues and language processing(i.e.superior frontal gyrus,inferior frontal gyrus and angular gyrus),involved both in malevolent and common creative idea generation.In addition,brain networks and regions of malevolent creativity presented specific activation and connectivity pattern(i.e.sensorimotor network,reward network,and visual network)related to emotional processing,response inhibition,and social cognition in malevolent creative idea generation.In addition,decreased activity of the posterior central gyrus would increase malevolent creative ideation performance.