Abstract
A novel game-like and creativity-conducive fMRI paradigm is developed to assess the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity in healthy adults. Participants were engaged in the word-guessing game of PictionaryTM, using an MR-safe drawing tablet and no explicit instructions to be “creative”. Using the primary contrast of drawing a given word versus drawing a control word (zigzag), we observed increased engagement of cerebellum, thalamus, left parietal cortex, right superior frontal, left prefrontal and paracingulate/cingulate regions, such that activation in the cingulate and left prefrontal cortices negatively influenced task performance. Further, using parametric fMRI analysis, increasing subjective difficulty ratings for drawing the word engaged higher activations in the left pre-frontal cortices, whereas higher expert-rated creative content in the drawings was associated with increased engagement of bilateral cerebellum. Altogether, our data suggest that cerebral-cerebellar interaction underlying implicit processing of mental representations has a facilitative effect on spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity.
Highlights
A novel game-like and creativity-conducive fMRI paradigm is developed to assess the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity in healthy adults
To address some of these issues, we present a novel game-like and creativity-conducive fMRI paradigm to assess the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity
Neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity
Summary
A novel game-like and creativity-conducive fMRI paradigm is developed to assess the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity in healthy adults. By comparing functional brain activation in artists with non-artists, researchers examined the neural correlates of enhanced artistic creativity[7,8,9]. Moment“16 and visual creativity[17], have been recently examined Despite this recent progress, experimental paradigms that are both conducive to creative thinking and facilitate examination of applied creativity remain scarce. Experimental paradigms that are both conducive to creative thinking and facilitate examination of applied creativity remain scarce Such paradigms could play an essential role in reducing variation in creativity neuroimaging results by minimizing confounding influences of cognitive processes that might not be related to creative thinking but are employed, in part, due to the task design. Few neuroimaging paradigms allow participants to express their creative potential in a direct/unrestricted manner, as opposed to pressing buttons or “thinking” creatively
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