Neural correlates of Eureka moment

Sprugnoli, Giulia; Rossi, Símone; Emmendorfer, Alexandra; Rossi, Alessandro; Liew, Sook‐Lei; Tatti, Elisa; Lorenzo, Giorgio Di; Pascual‐Leone, Álvaro; Santarnecchi, Emiliano

doi:10.1016/j.intell.2017.03.004

Cited by 60 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 134 publications

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“…There are, however, a range of different findings in the literature on evoked EEG [or event-related potentials (ERPs)] of creativity, perhaps due to wide variety of creativity tasks used ( Luo et al, 2013 ). The most consistent result among these studies is a positive correlation between creativity (such as insight problem solving) and a N400-like component ( Sprugnoli et al, 2017 ). Insight problem solving was a process of reconstructing the problem in a novel way as an “Aha” experience ( Qiu et al, 2008 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Exploring the Experience of Novelty When Viewing Creative Adverts: An ERP Study

Zhou

Yin

et al. 2018

Front. Psychol.

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The electrophysiological correlates of experiencing novelty in creative advertising were studied in 28 healthy subjects using event-related potentials. Participants viewed images that were difficult to interpret until a description was presented providing either a creative description (CD) featuring an unexpected description of the image based on the original advertisement, or a normal description (ND), which was a literal description of the image (and served as a baseline condition). Participants evaluated the level of creativity of the description. The results showed that the N2 amplitude was higher for CDs than for NDs across middle and right scalp regions between 240 and 270 ms, most likely reflecting conflict detection. Moreover, CDs demonstrated greater N400 than NDs in a time window between 380 and 500 ms, it is argued that this reflects semantic integration. The present study investigates the electrophysiological correlates of experiencing novelty in advertising with ecologically valid stimuli. This substantially extends the findings of earlier laboratory studies with more artificial stimuli.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Exploring the Experience of Novelty When Viewing Creative Adverts: An ERP Study

Zhou

Yin

et al. 2018

Front. Psychol.

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“…Several brain regions involved in attention and cognitive control differentiate insight from deliberate analytic problem-solving [12][13][14] . RATL activity is thought to underlie the semantic integration of distantly related associations that contribute to language comprehension 25 and to creative problem-solving 17,26 , a characteristic that makes this brain area a potential key region for facilitating insight if stimulated.…”

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confidence: 99%

TDCS to the right anterior temporal lobe facilitates insight problem-solving

Salvi

Beeman

Bikson

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Problem-solving is essential for advances in cultural, social, and scientific knowledge. It is also one of the most challenging cognitive processes to facilitate. Some problem-solving is deliberate, but frequently people solve problems with a sudden insight, also known as a Eureka or "Aha!" moment. the advantage of solving problems via insight is that these solutions are more accurate, relying on a unique pattern of neural activity, compared to deliberative strategies. The right Anterior Temporal Lobe (rATL), putatively involved in semantic integration, is distinctively activated when people experience an insight. The rATL may contribute to the recognition of distant semantic relations that support insight solutions, although fMRI and EEG evidence for its involvement is, by nature, correlational. In this study, we investigate if focal sub-threshold neuromodulation to the rATL facilitates insight problem-solving. In three different groups, using a within-and between-subjects design, we tested the causal role of this brain region in problem-solving, by applying High Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to the rATL (active and sham condition) or the left frontopolar region while participants attempted to solve Compound Remote Associates problems before, during and after stimulation. Participants solved a higher percentage of problems, overall, and specifically by insight when they received rATL stimulation, compared to pre-stimulation, and compared to sham and left frontopolar stimulation. These results confirm the crucial role played by the rATL in insight problem-solving. Have you ever pondered a difficult problem when you suddenly became aware of the correct solution, with surprise and confidence-an Aha! experience? Such solutions are reached with sudden insight, and they have the advantage of being highly accurate 1-8. A similar Aha! experience can also occur when you decipher an ambiguous perception, comprehend a joke, or suddenly grasp a metaphor 9. Recent behavioral, electrophysiological and neuroimaging techniques have identified patterns of neural activity, networks, and biomarkers characterizing insight problem-solving that differ from the neural activity induced when people solve the same problems more deliberatively 10-19. Based upon this first wave of studies, and thanks to the introduction of new techniques of neurostimulation, identifying the causal relationship of brain regions to insight problem-solving is now achievable when studying healthy humans. When people attempt to solve Compound Remote Associate (CRA) problems, they recognize solutions more quickly when the solution-related information is presented in the left visual hemifield, suggesting that information processes in the right hemisphere play an essential role in problem-solving. This is particularly true if they recognize solutions with an Aha!-like feeling of sudden insight 20,21. Experiments using EEG or fMRI revealed increased neural activity (specifically gamma-γ band, −40 Hz for the EEG experiment) over the right Anteri...

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“…moment may be achieved with an incremental approach, with constant monitoring of one's own cognitive processes as a pivotal feature, making the Aha! moment more like a conscious epiphenomenon of a general problem-solving process rather than a burst of uncommon cognitive processes [22,23].…”

Section: The Psychology Of Insightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Knoblich et al [24,26] suggest that the main issue of problem-solving is an individual's tendency to set unnecessary constraints through a very restricted representation of the problem, which is a function of limited, incomplete or ambiguous prior knowledge. Once the impasse is reached, by relaxing the unnecessary constraints that have been placed on the problem by deactivating the recalled knowledge linked to the problem or decomposing elements of the task by dividing it into perceptual chunks, a new representation of the problem can be reached [23,25].…”

Section: The Psychology Of Insightmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Aha! Moment: The Science Behind Creative Insights

Carpenter¹

2020

Toward Super-Creativity - Improving Creativity in Humans, Machines, and Human - Machine Collaborations

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Insight, often referred to as an "aha moment," has been defined as a sudden, conscious change in a person's representation of a stimulus, situation, event, or problem. Recent advances in neuroimaging technology and neurophysiological techniques have allowed researchers an opportunity to hone in on the neural circuitry that governs insight, a phenomenon that has been theorized about by cognitive psychologists for over a century. Studies show that insight is not a sudden flash that comes from nowhere, but in fact is the result of the unconscious mind piecing together loosely connected bits of information stemming from prior knowledge and experiences and forming novel associations among them. This conceptualization of insight naturally gives rise to comparisons between insight and creativity. Creativity, however, involves many cognitive processes, occurring in many regions of the brain and thus cannot be laterally localized as insight can. Thus, creativity is not considered synonymous with insight; however, insight can certainly result in creative solutions during creative problem solving.

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Neural correlates of Eureka moment

Cited by 60 publications

References 134 publications

Exploring the Experience of Novelty When Viewing Creative Adverts: An ERP Study

Exploring the Experience of Novelty When Viewing Creative Adverts: An ERP Study

TDCS to the right anterior temporal lobe facilitates insight problem-solving

The Aha! Moment: The Science Behind Creative Insights

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