The Association between Resting Functional Connectivity and Visual Creativity

Wenfu Li,Qinglin Zhang,Junyi Yang,Jiang Qiu,Gongying Li

doi:10.1038/srep25395

Wenfu Li, Qinglin Zhang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25395

Copy DOI

Abstract

Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC), the temporal correlation of intrinsic activation between different brain regions, has become one of the most fascinating field in the functional imaging studies. To better understand the association between RSFC and individual creativity, we used RSFC and the figure Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT-F) to investigate the relationship between creativity measured by TTCT and RSFC within two different brain networks, default mode network and the cognitive control network, in a large healthy sample (304). We took the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (DLPFC) to be the seed regions and investigated the association across subjects between the score of TTCT-F and the strength of RSFC between these seed regions and other voxels in the whole brain. Results revealed that the strength of RSFC with the MPFC was significantly and negatively correlated with the score of TTCT-F in the precuneus. Meanwhile, we also found that the strength of RSFC with the left DLPFC was significantly and positively correlated with the score of TTCT-F in the right DLPFC. It suggests that the decreased RSFC within DMN and the increased RSFC within CCN presents a potential interaction mechanism between different region for higher creativity.

Highlights

Creativity is necessary to the growth of human society, economy and social culture and has generally been viewed as “a kind of novelty that is useful, valuable and generative”[1]
Our results revealed that higher creativity is related to the decreased Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the precuneus and the increased RSFC between left dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) and right DLPFC
The results suggest that the altered RSFC within default mode network (DMN) and cognitive control network (CCN) might be critically involved in visual creativity

Summary

Introduction

Creativity is necessary to the growth of human society, economy and social culture and has generally been viewed as “a kind of novelty that is useful, valuable and generative”[1]. A recent RSFC study found that higher creativity as measured by divergent thinking (DT) test, a verbal creativity test, was positively associated with the strength of RSFC between the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)[14]. Another research investigated the association between creativity as measured by verbal TTCT and the RSFC in DMN and revealed that creativity was positively correlated with the strength of RSFC between the MPFC and the middle temporal gyrus (MTG)[35]. These results seem to show verbal creativity was related to the consistency of spontaneous fluctuations among DMN regions. It is reasonable to speculate whether the strength of RSFC in CCN may be related to visual creativity as measured by figure TTCT, in spite of undetected association between verbal creativity and the strength of RSFC with DLPFC14,35

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion