Abstract
The first neuroimaging study of real-time brain activity during insight problem solving was conducted almost ten years ago. Many subsequent studies have used high-resolution event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the temporal dynamics and neural correlates of insight. Recent results on the neural underpinnings of insight have led researchers to propose a neural framework referred to as the “insightful brain”. This putative framework represents the neural basis of the cognitive and affective processes that are involved in insight. The insightful brain may involve numerous brain regions, including the lateral prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, hippocampus, superior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, precuneus, cuneus, insula and cerebellum. Functional studies have demonstrated that the lateral prefrontal cortex is responsible for mental set shifting and breaking during insight problem solving. The cingulate cortex is involved in the cognitive conflict between new and old ideas and progress monitoring. The hippocampus, superior temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus form an integrated functional network that specializes in the formation of novel and effective associations. The effective transformation of problem representations depends on a non-verbal visuospatial information-processing network that comprises the precuneus and cuneus. The insula reflects cognitive flexibility and the emotional experience that is associated with insight. The cortical control of finger movements relies on the cerebellum.
Highlights
The term “insight” describes an experience that is related to a state of understanding, which emerges into one’s conscious awareness with sudden abruptness
The hippocampus, superior temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus form an integrated functional network that specializes in the formation of novel and effective associations
The only difference between the two types of problem solving was the degree of activation in these frontal brain areas, which suggests that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) participated in the tight chunk decomposition (TCD) and loose chunk decomposition (LCD) problem-solving tasks
Summary
The cingulate cortex is an anatomically important part of the limbic lobe. The cingulated cortex is located in the center of the cerebrum, and it is wrapped around the central bundle of nerves known as the corpus callosum. The activation in the right STG was negative when the insight problem was solved with the assistance of a trigger (either a hint or heuristic) because the participants only partially experienced or comprehended the novel or remote association (similar to outsight) rather than forming and constructing the entire novel or remote association using their own initiative This hypothesis was confirmed by Qiu et al [20] who observed that prototype problem solving exhibited greater activation in the bilateral STG under the “many-to-many” prototype heuristic condition compared to target problem solving. The hippocampus, STG and fusiform gyrus may form a neural network that is responsible for the formation of novel and remote associations in insight problem solving. These areas generate and construct more complex and rich novel images and associations
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