The origins of originality: The neural bases of creative thinking and originality

Shamay‐Tsoory, Simone G.; Adler, Noga; Aharon‐Peretz, Judith; Perry, Daniella; Mayseless, Naama

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.11.020

Cited by 173 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The model we propose not only plausibly accounts for the results we report here, it is in accord with previous studies in performance‐based genres such as jazz [Limb and Braun, 2008] and lyrical improvisation [Liu et al, 2012], has been supported conceptually by other researchers [Abraham, 2013; Berkowitz, 2010] and is consistent with TMS and lesion studies [Chrysikou et al, 2013; Reverberi et al, 2005; Shamay‐Tsoory et al, 2011] as well. (Although another lesion study [Abraham et al, 2012] reported results that were inconsistent with the model proposed here, the discrepancy, as discussed above, may have been due to differences in lesion distribution or in the behavioral tasks that were employed).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…For example, a recent transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) study [Chrysikou et al, 2013] also showed that cathodal (inhibitory) tDCS over the left prefrontal cortex facilitates performance in an alternative uses task, supporting the idea that deactivation of the DLPFC enhances cognitive flexibility. In addition, patients with lesions in the MPFC had significant impairments in measures of originality on the Torrance test of creative thinking [Shamay‐Tsoory et al, 2011]. At the same time, patients ( n = 17) with lesions in the lateral frontal cortex performed better than healthy controls in an insight‐based problem solving task [Reverberi et al, 2005].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process

Liu

Erkkinen

Healey

et al. 2015

Human Brain Mapping

140

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Creativity, a multifaceted construct, can be studied in various ways, for example, investigating phases of the creative process, quality of the creative product, or the impact of expertise. Previous neuroimaging studies have assessed these individually. Believing that each of these interacting features must be examined simultaneously to develop a comprehensive understanding of creative behavior, we examined poetry composition, assessing process, product, and expertise in a single experiment. Distinct activation patterns were associated with generation and revision, two major phases of the creative process. Medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) was active during both phases, yet responses in dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal executive systems (DLPFC/IPS) were phase‐dependent, indicating that while motivation remains unchanged, cognitive control is attenuated during generation and re‐engaged during revision. Experts showed significantly stronger deactivation of DLPFC/IPS during generation, suggesting that they may more effectively suspend cognitive control. Importantly however, similar overall patterns were observed in both groups, indicating the same cognitive resources are available to experts and novices alike. Quality of poetry, assessed by an independent panel, was associated with divergent connectivity patterns in experts and novices, centered upon MPFC (for technical facility) and DLPFC/IPS (for innovation), suggesting a mechanism by which experts produce higher quality poetry. Crucially, each of these three key features can be understood in the context of a single neurocognitive model characterized by dynamic interactions between medial prefrontal areas regulating motivation, dorsolateral prefrontal, and parietal areas regulating cognitive control and the association of these regions with language, sensorimotor, limbic, and subcortical areas distributed throughout the brain. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3351–3372, 2015. © 2015 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc..

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process

Liu

Erkkinen

Healey

et al. 2015

Human Brain Mapping

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Expert designers came up with more original designs as compared with novices, and more interestingly, the degree of originality in experts was associated with asymmetrically increased brain activity in the right prefrontal cortex during the invention task (see also Folley and Park 2005). Shamay-Tsoory et al (2011) investigated divergent thinking in patients suffering from different types of brain lesions and found that patients with RH lesions came up with fewer original ideas as compared with patients with LH lesions and healthy controls, highlighting an important role for the RH in creativity. Particularly striking was the finding that more extensive lesions in the LH were associated with increased creativity while more extensive lesions in the RH decreased creativity.…”

Section: Hemispheric Reward Asymmetry and Creativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The “Creative Right Brain” Revisited: Individual Creativity and Associative Priming in the Right Hemisphere Relate to Hemispheric Asymmetries in Reward Brain Function

2016

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The idea that creativity resides in the right cerebral hemisphere is persistent in popular science, but has been widely frowned upon by the scientific community due to little empirical support. Yet, creativity is believed to rely on the ability to combine remote concepts into novel and useful ideas, an ability which would depend on associative processing in the right hemisphere. Moreover, associative processing is modulated by dopamine, and asymmetries in dopamine functionality between hemispheres may imbalance the expression of their implemented cognitive functions. Here, by uniting these largely disconnected concepts, we hypothesize that relatively less dopamine function in the right hemisphere boosts creativity by releasing constraining effects of dopamine on remote associations. Indeed, participants with reduced neural responses in the dopaminergic system of the right hemisphere (estimated by functional MRI in a reward task with positive and negative feedback), displayed higher creativity (estimated by convergent and divergent tasks), and increased associative processing in the right hemisphere (estimated by a lateralized lexical decision task). Our findings offer unprecedented empirical support for a crucial and specific contribution of the right hemisphere to creativity. More importantly our study provides a comprehensive view on potential determinants of human creativity, namely dopamine-related activity and associative processing.

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“…Figural fluency tests are related to divergent thinking (Runco 1991) and creative cognition (Fink et al 2010;Forthmann et al 2016). These tests are usually used in tests of creativity and divergent thinking (Forthmann et al 2016;Shamay-Tsoory et al 2011), but some studies suggest that all forms of fluency, including verbal and nonverbal fluency, are among executive functions (EFs) in general (Zalonis et al 2017) or some specific EF domains such as cognitive flexibility (Ruff et al 1987). Interestingly, other studies have shown that creativity and EFs are associated with each other.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over the Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC) Enhances Figural Fluency: Implications for Creative Cognition

2017

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Creative cognition and figural fluency are two closely related concepts. Previous studies suggest different brain regions involved in figural fluency, creativity, and divergent thinking including frontal and parietal cortices. Furthermore, neural underpinning of the figural fluency is yet to be studied. This study aimes to investigate effects of modulation of cortical excitability in the right posterior parietal cortex (r-PPC) and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (l-DLPFC) on figural fluency using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Twenty neurologically unimpaired participants (mean age 27.55, SD = 5.11) received anodal r-PPC (P4), anodal l-DLPFC (F3), and sham tDCS (15 min, 1.5 mA) with 72-h interval between each stimulation condition. After 5 min of stimulation, participants underwent the Five-Point Test (FPT) which is a measure of figural fluency. Results showed that although participants produced more unique figures under both stimulation montages, they significantly produced more unique designs under anodal r-PPC tDCS compared to anodal l-DLPFC and sham tDCS. Findings imply that figural fluency is more dependent on the activation of the right posterior regions of parietal cortex, which is associated with spatial cognition, visual attention, cognitive flexibility, and creative cognition, but may partially benefit from activation of prefrontal regions too. tDCS has beneficial effects in enhancing figural fluency and potentially creative cognition as well as potential therapeutic effects in disorders suffering from impaired figural fluency.

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The origins of originality: The neural bases of creative thinking and originality

Cited by 173 publications

References 41 publications

Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process

Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process

The “Creative Right Brain” Revisited: Individual Creativity and Associative Priming in the Right Hemisphere Relate to Hemispheric Asymmetries in Reward Brain Function

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over the Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC) Enhances Figural Fluency: Implications for Creative Cognition

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