Abstract
Humans possess an invaluable ability of self-expression that extends into visual, literary, musical, and many other fields of creation. More than any other profession, artists are in close contact with this subdomain of creativity. Probably one of the most intriguing aspects of creativity is its negative correlation with the availability of monetary reward. The aim of this study was to investigate the reactivity of the dopaminergic reward system in artists and nonartist controls using the desire-reason-dilemma (DRD) paradigm, which allows separate evaluation of reactivity to the acceptance and rejection of rewards. Using fMRI, blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses were measured in key regions of the reward system, namely the ventral striatum (VS), the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and the anterior ventral prefrontal cortex (AVPFC). In contrast to controls, artists presented significantly weaker VS activation in reward acceptance. Additionally, they showed stronger suppression of the VS by the AVPFC in reward rejection. No other differences in demographic or behavioral data were evidenced. These results support the existence of characteristic neural traits in artists, who display reduced reactions to monetary reward acceptance and increased reactions to monetary reward rejection.
Highlights
Creativity is an extremely valuable characteristic, which enables individuals to produce novel and meaningful work (Sternberg & Lubart, 2002)
Our results indicate the existence of distinct neural traits in the dopaminergic reward system of artists, who are less inclined to react to the acceptance of monetary rewards
It reinforces the point that particularities associated with artistic creativity exist in the dopaminergic reward system, especially given that the artists were engaged in the task, as indicated by the similar performance of artists and non-artists (Table 1)
Summary
Creativity is an extremely valuable characteristic, which enables individuals to produce novel and meaningful work (Sternberg & Lubart, 2002). The dopaminergic reward system in humans has been extensively investigated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of test subjects engaging in monetary incentive tasks (Elliot et al, 2003, 2004; Haber & Knutson, 2010; Knutson, Taylor, Kaufman, Peterson, & Glover, 2005; Knutson, Westdorp, Kaiser, & Hommer, 2000; Levy & Glimcher, 2011; Pessiglione et al, 2007; Rademacher et al, 2010; Sesack & Grace, 2010; Small et al, 2005; Zink, Pagnoni, Martin- Skurski, Chappelow, & Berns, 2004) This has proven the importance of the ventral striatum (VS), which is strategically situated in between dopaminergic input from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and modulatory suppression from the pre-frontal cortex (PFC). Based on previous behavioral research on incentives, the hypothesis was that in comparison to controls the reward system of artists would be less reactive to acceptance and rejection of monetary rewards
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