What relates newspaper, definite, and clothing? An article describing deficits in convergent problem solving and creativity following hippocampal damage

Abstract

Creativity relies on a diverse set of cognitive processes associated with distinct neural correlates, and one important aspect of creativity, divergent thinking, has been associated with the hippocampus. However, hippocampal contributions to another important aspect of creativity, convergent problem solving, have not been investigated. We tested the necessity of hippocampus for convergent problem solving using a neuropsychological method. Participants with amnesia due to hippocampal damage (N=5) and healthy normal comparison participants (N=5) were tested using a task that promoted solutions based on existing knowledge (Bowden and Jung-Beeman, 2003). During each trial, participants were given a list of three words (e.g., fly, man, place) and asked to respond with a word that could be combined with each of the three words (e.g., fire). The amnesic group produced significantly fewer correct responses than the healthy comparison group. These findings indicate that the hippocampus is necessary for normal convergent problem solving and that changes in the status of the hippocampus should affect convergent problem solving in the context of creative problem-solving across short intervals. This proposed contribution of the hippocampus to convergent problem solving is consistent with an expanded perspective on hippocampal function that acknowledges its role in cognitive processes beyond declarative memory.

The contribution of the lesion approach to the neuroscience of creative cognition

“…The critical role of the DMN in creativity is consistent with previous lesion studies that showed a deficit in both RAT [15 ] and divergent thinking [12] tasks in patients with damage to the hippocampus, a DMN-related region. A rostromedial PFC damage, another region that is thought to belong to the DMN, has been associated with a divergent thinking impairment in Shamay-Tsoory et al' s study [10], which highlighted difficulties in generating original ideas in these patients.…”

Hippocampus and amygdala: An insight-related network involved in metaphorical solution to mental distress problem

“…For example, Luo and Niki (2003) found that a riddle paradigm elicited activity in the hippocampus, suggesting that the hippocampus participates in insightful problem solving by forming new association and breaking mental fixation. Participants with hippocampal damage performed less well than healthy controls on subcomponents of the Torrance tests of creative thinking (Duff, Kurczek, Rubin, Cohen, & Tranel, 2013) and on the compound remote associates task (Warren, Kurczek, & Duff, 2016). Moreover, it was suggested that the relational binding and representational flexibility provided by the hippocampal declarative memory system positions the hippocampus as a key contributor to language use and processing (Duff & Sarah, 2012).…”

The neuropsychology of creativity

“…The second approach, case series or group-based investigations on neurological populations of interest, has been adopted in a far more limited capacity compared to the first approach, yet at the same time also in a more heterogeneous manner. This makes Disorders of interest include FTD (de Souza et al, 2010;Rankin et al, 2007), 7 SD (Rankin et al, 2007), Parkinson's disease (Canesi, Rusconi, Isaias, & Pezzoli, 2012;Canesi et al, 2016;Lhommée et al, 2014) and savant syndrome (Mottron, Dawson, & Soulières, 2009;Treffert, 2009Treffert, , 2014, as well as patients with lesions of the frontal lobe (Abraham, Beudt, Ott, & von Cramon, 2012;Reverberi, Toraldo, D'Agostini, & Skrap, 2005;Shamay-Tsoory, Adler, Aharon-Peretz, Perry, & Mayseless, 2011), the hippocampus (Duff, Kurczek, Rubin, Cohen, & Tranel, 2013;Warren, Kurczek, & Duff, 2016), the parieto-temporal cortex (Abraham et al, 2012;Shamay-Tsoory et al, 2011), and the basal ganglia (Abraham et al, 2012).…”