Abstract
Creative thinking represents a major evolutionary mechanism that greatly contributed to the rapid advancement of the human species. The ability to produce novel and useful ideas, or original thinking, is thought to correlate well with unexpected, synchronous activation of several large-scale, dispersed cortical networks, such as the default network (DN). Despite a vast amount of correlative evidence, a causal link between default network and creativity has yet to be demonstrated. Surgeries for resection of brain tumors that lie in proximity to speech related areas are performed while the patient is awake to map the exposed cortical surface for language functions. Such operations provide a unique opportunity to explore human behavior while disrupting a focal cortical area via focal electrical stimulation. We used a novel paradigm of individualized direct cortical stimulation to examine the association between creative thinking and the DN. Preoperative resting-state fMRI was used to map the DN in individual patients. A cortical area identified as a DN node (study) or outside the DN (controls) was stimulated while the participants performed an alternate-uses-task (AUT). This task measures divergent thinking through the number and originality of different uses provided for an everyday object. Baseline AUT performance in the operating room was positively correlated with DN integrity. Direct cortical stimulation at the DN node resulted in decreased ability to produce alternate uses, but not in the originality of uses produced. Stimulation in areas that when used as network seed regions produced a network similar to the canonical DN was associated with reduction of creative fluency. Stimulation of areas that did not produce a default-like network (controls) did not alter creative thinking. This is the first study to causally link the DN and creative thinking.
Highlights
Creativity, traditionally described as the ability to produce novel and useful ideas [1], has played a major role in the establishment of modern culture and civilization
The Default Network (DN) is a well-explored, large-scale, association cortical network traditionally linked with internal mentation [7, 8]
To investigate the possible connection between the DN and creative thinking, we examined the effect of DCS of a preoperatively-identified DN node on the ability to perform creative thinking
Summary
Ben Shofty 1,8 ✉, Tal Gonen, Eyal Bergmann, Naama Mayseless, Akiva Korn, Simone Shamay-Tsoory, Rachel Grossman, Itamar Jalon, Itamar Kahn 3,7,9 and Zvi Ram. The ability to produce novel and useful ideas, or original thinking, is thought to correlate well with unexpected, synchronous activation of several large-scale, dispersed cortical networks, such as the default network (DN). A cortical area identified as a DN node (study) or outside the DN (controls) was stimulated while the participants performed an alternate-uses-task (AUT) This task measures divergent thinking through the number and originality of different uses provided for an everyday object. Creative thinking is essential to the daily functioning of modern human beings and allows for inspirational problem solving, technological and artistic advancement This complex, multi-factorial cognitive process cannot be linked to a specific cerebral anatomical area, such as primary motor or sensory cortices, or to the activity of individual neurons, and instead is assumed to be network-dependent [2]. We hypothesized that disruption of DN synchronization by artificial non-physiologic electrical stimulation would affect the ability to perform creative thinking (Fig. 1B)
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