Executive and default network connectivity reflects conceptual interference during creative imagery generation

Abstract

Functional neuroimaging research has recently begun to explore cognitive mechanisms of creativity that underlie the interactions between large-scale brain networks—specifically regions of the executive control (ECN) and default (DN) networks. Increased ECN-DN coupling has been shown to occur when participants are required to overcome conceptual interference (i.e., activation of salient conceptual knowledge); however, most studies have used creativity tasks with verbal stimuli. Here we examine whether overcoming conceptual interference elicits these interactions during a creativity task with visual stimuli, which may suggest that these interactions are a domain general neural mechanism (i.e., across multiple modalities). We used independent component analysis to identify task related functional connectivity networks during novel imagery generation under High- and Low-Constraint conditions (i.e., interference and no interference, respectively). Consistent with our expectations, our results showed greater connectivity between ECN and DN components during the High-Constraint condition compared to the Low-Constraint condition. In contrast to previous research using verbal tasks, our results showed that the ECN had greater connectivity with the posterior, rather than anterior, DN. Our results suggest that ECN-DN coupling may be a domain-general neural mechanism that underlies creative cognition, but stimulus modality may affect which specific regions within these networks are involved.

Prefrontal contributions to the stability and variability of thought and conscious experience

“…3) and aimed at producing original and useful ideas [19,39,40]. Creative ability has been linked to executive capacity [41][42][43], and appears to reflect one's ability for rejecting uncreative ideas [44][45][46][47], maintaining focus on internally generated thoughts against external distractors [45,48], deliberately evaluating the quality of an idea [18], or implementing more creative but also more executively taxing idea generation strategies [30]. Each of these cognitive processes may contribute to increased variability, but only indirectly-by supporting the generation of a particular range of "more creative" thought contents.…”

Toward greater computational modeling in neurocognitive creativity research.

“…The increased DMN–ECN cooperation observed during creative cognition is also suggestive of interacting associative and controlled processes, and may signify the DMN spontaneously activating ideas (Beaty et al, 2020; Beaty & Lloyd-Cox, 2020), while the ECN network inhibits prepotent ideas (Beaty, Christensen, et al, 2017; Christensen et al, 2019; Lloyd-Cox et al, 2021) and implements creative strategies (Benedek & Jauk, 2018). Indeed, DMN–ECN cooperation during creative cognition appears to increase when there is a need for inhibition (Beaty, Christensen, et al, 2017; Christensen et al, 2019).…”

“…Meanwhile, evidence linking creative cognition to intelligence and executive functions has led to suggestions that controlled creative processes may include strategic search processes (Avitia & Kaufman, 2014;Benedek & Neubauer, 2013;Forthmann, Bürkner, et al, 2019;Lebuda & Benedek, 2023;Silvia et al, 2013), and the inhibition of distracting or unoriginal thoughts (Beaty, Christensen, et al, 2017;Volle, 2018). The increased DMN-ECN cooperation observed during creative cognition is also suggestive of interacting associative and controlled processes, and may signify the DMN spontaneously activating ideas , while the ECN network inhibits prepotent ideas (Beaty, Christensen, et al, 2017;Christensen et al, 2019;Lloyd-Cox et al, 2021) and implements creative strategies (Benedek & Jauk, 2018). Indeed, DMN-ECN cooperation during creative cognition appears to increase when there is a need for inhibition (Beaty, Christensen, et al, 2017;Christensen et al, 2019).…”

A Closer Look at Transitions between the Generative and Evaluative Phases of Creative Thought

“…Deliberate, cognitive control processes which occur during evaluative modes of thought may include evaluations of the novelty and utility of ideas (Ellamil et al, 2012) as well as the selective retrieval or suppression of certain semantic content (Beaty et al, 2017;Christensen et al, 2019;Pinho et al, 2016). At the neural level, these processes have been linked at least in part to recruitment of the frontoparietal control network (see Figure 1), a brain network associated with the flexible, top-down implementation of cognitive control and executive function (Christoff et al, 2016;Dosenbach et al, 2008;Niendam et al, 2012;Spreng et al, 2010;Vincent et al, 2008;Zamani et al, 2021).…”