Abstract
Throughout recorded history, and across cultures, humans have made visual art. In recent years, the neural bases of creativity, including artistic creativity, have become a topic of interest. In this study we investigated the neural bases of the visual creative process with both professional artists and a group of control participants. We tested the idea that creativity (planning an artwork) would influence the functional connectivity between regions involved in the default mode network (DMN), implicated in divergent thinking and generating novel ideas, and the executive control network (EN), implicated in evaluating and selecting ideas. We measured functional connectivity with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) during three different conditions: rest, visual imagery of the alphabet and planning an artwork to be executed immediately after the scanning session. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found stronger connectivity between areas of the DMN and EN during the creative task, and this difference was enhanced in professional artists. These findings suggest that creativity involves an expert balance of two brain networks typically viewed as being in opposition.
Highlights
Throughout recorded history, and across cultures, humans have made visual art
In the first region of interest (ROI)-to-ROI analysis we examined the functional connectivity between executive control network (EN) and default mode network (DMN) nodes in the Creative Task versus Resting State
This revealed significantly stronger connectivity during creativity between nodes of the two networks, decreased connectivity within the EN, and increased connectivity within the DMN. This suggests that the ENs and DMNs are more strongly connected during the visually creative stages compared to pure resting mental activities, and the EN is less functionally connected with activity of the right BA47, a prefrontal node considered to be involved in inhibitory control[49]
Summary
Throughout recorded history, and across cultures, humans have made visual art. In recent years, the neural bases of creativity, including artistic creativity, have become a topic of interest. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found stronger connectivity between areas of the DMN and EN during the creative task, and this difference was enhanced in professional artists These findings suggest that creativity involves an expert balance of two brain networks typically viewed as being in opposition. One key aspect of art is that it must be created in the mind of the artist so that these intentions can be translated into a physical form This involves both a planning process, during which the artist decides what she or he will do, and the execution of the artwork, during which time artists typically revise and update these plans[1,2,3,4,5]. By putting these two processes together, executive control allows for the selection and evaluation of ideas that are generated via spontaneous thinking to check if the new combinations can be executed or not, and at what costs, and whether they successfully solve a problem or express what was intended
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