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The role of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in influencing creative thinking has been investigated by many researchers who, while succeeding in proving an effective involvement of PFC, reported suggestive but sometimes conflicting results. In order to better understand the relationships between creative thinking and brain activation in a more specific area of the PFC, we explored the role of dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC). We devised an experimental protocol using transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS). The study was based on a 3 (kind of stimulation: anodal vs. cathodal vs. sham) × 2 (priming: divergent vs. convergent) design. Forty-five healthy adults were randomly assigned to one stimulation condition. Participants’ creativity skills were assessed using the Product Improvement subtest from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). After 20 min of tDCS stimulation, participants were presented with visual images of common objects. Half of the participants were instructed to visualize themselves using the object in an unusual way (divergent priming), whereas the other half were asked to visualize themselves while using the object in a common way (convergent priming). Priming was aimed at inducing participants to adopt different attitudes toward the creative task. Afterwards, participants were asked to describe all of the possible uses of the objects that were presented. Participants’ physiological activation was recorded using a biofeedback equipment. Results showed a significant effect of anodal stimulation that enhanced creative performance, but only after divergent priming. Participants showed lower skin temperature values after cathodal stimulation, a finding which is coherent with studies reporting that, when a task is not creative or creative thinking is not prompted, people show lower levels of arousal. Differences in individual levels of creativity as assessed by the Product Improvement test were not influential. The involvement of DLPFC in creativity has been supported, presumably in association to shift of attention modulated by priming.

1 n.bernardi2@campus.unimib.it, 2 alexschories@gmx.de, 3 jabusch@hfmdd.de, 4 barbara.colombo@unicatt.it, 5 altenmueller@hmt-hannover.de ABSTRACTMental Practice (MP) refers to a complex network of strategies for improving musical performance without physically performing at the instrument. The present study represents an attempt to describe cross-individual differences in the use of different MP strategies, allowing direct predictions on which strategies are more likely to be effective. Sixteen pianists were studied while memorizing piano pieces. Each subject memorized two pieces of comparable length and difficulty, one by MP and the other by Physical Practice (PP), on two different days according to standardized protocols. During MP subjects were free to apply any practice strategies they preferred except for physically playing a real piano (ecological approach). Practice and performances were video-documented; performances were judged by independent expert raters. Participants reported their practice strategies in researcher-developed questionnaires. MP alone produced successful musical learning. MP, even combined with PP, produced poorer performance compared with PP alone. MP outcomes were significantly influenced by the strategies applied. These results directly impact on musicians' daily schedule and managing of health-risk factors, since valuable performance results can be achieved by combining optimally designed mental practice with short physical practice focused on strengthening the internal representation of the piece.

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The Cognitive Reserve (CR) hypothesis suggests that the brain actively attempts to cope with neural damages by using pre-existing cognitive processing approaches or by enlisting compensatory approaches. This would allow an individual with high CR to better cope with aging than an individual with lower CR. Many of the proxies used to assess CR indirectly refer to the flexibility of thought. The present paper aims at directly exploring the relationships between CR and creativity, a skill that includes flexible thinking. We tested a sample of 72 adults (aged between 45 and 78) assessing both their level of CR and their creativity. To evaluate CR we used the proxies commonly used in literature, namely, three subtests from the WAIS (vocabulary, similarities, and digit span) and the years of education. We also used an ad-hoc test asking people to report how frequently they tend to perform activities that are believed to increase CR. We used verbal creativity tasks (alternative uses and generation of acronyms) to assess individual levels of creativity. We asked participants to describe their main occupation (present or past) and coded each occupation as creative or not creative. Results (controlling for age-related differences) showed that scores from the WAIS correlated positively with creativity performance, even though correlations varied across the subtests. Focusing on the frequency and type of activities that people perform, and comparing individuals who have or had a creative job to those with a routine job, a clear relationship between creativity and CR emerged. This effect was more relevant than the level of job complexity. Implications for the study of CR and aging are discussed.

This study aims at investigating students' strategies -as revealed by behavioural, psychophysiological and introspective measures -which are applied during the free exploration of multimedia instructional presentations, which requires students to self-regulate their learning processes. Two multimedia presentations were constructed and presented to a sample of 20 undergraduates in two conditions: written text + pictures vs. audio text + pictures. While students were engaged in the study of the presentations, their eye movements were registered and psychophysiological indices were monitored. Students' learning outcomes were assessed and a questionnaire was employed to record students' awareness of the mental processes involved in the task. Results showed that students were able to discriminate between the written-and audio-text conditions and self-regulate their behaviour accordingly. A model, assuming psychophysiological indices as predictors of different eye-movement patterns, highlighted significant differences between the written-and the audio-text conditions. A regression model, considering learning outcomes as a dependent variable, showed that the number of correct responses could be predicted according to the level of cognitive effort needed during the exploration of the multimedia presentations.