Abstract
This functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study was designed to investigate changes in functional patterns of brain activity during creative ideation as a result of a computerized, 3‐week verbal creativity training. The training was composed of various verbal divergent thinking exercises requiring participants to train approximately 20 min per day. Fifty‐three participants were tested three times (psychometric tests and fMRI assessment) with an intertest‐interval of 4 weeks each. Participants were randomly assigned to two different training groups, which received the training time‐delayed: The first training group was trained between the first and the second test, while the second group accomplished the training between the second and the third test session. At the behavioral level, only one training group showed improvements in different facets of verbal creativity right after the training. Yet, functional patterns of brain activity during creative ideation were strikingly similar across both training groups. Whole‐brain voxel‐wise analyses (along with supplementary region of interest analyses) revealed that the training was associated with activity changes in well‐known creativity‐related brain regions such as the left inferior parietal cortex and the left middle temporal gyrus, which have been shown as being particularly sensitive to the originality facet of creativity in previous research. Taken together, this study demonstrates that continuous engagement in a specific complex cognitive task like divergent thinking is associated with reliable changes of activity patterns in relevant brain areas, suggesting more effective search, retrieval, and integration from internal memory representations as a result of the training. Hum Brain Mapp 36:4104–4115, 2015. © 2015 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Highlights
In view of the rapidly increasing complexity of the world around us “creativity is more important than ever before” [Runco, 2004, p. 658] and is even considered as “a useful and effective response to evolutionary changes “[Runco, 2004], since it allows the individual to flexibly respond to the continuously changing conditions around us
Cousijn et al [2014] conducted an eight-session Alternative Uses task (AUT) training in a sample of 32 adolescents and in a pretest post-test design they measured functional resting state connectivity patterns in task-relevant brain regions such as the bilateral middle temporal gyri (MTG), the medial frontal gyrus, and the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG). They found that at pretest stronger connectivity between the MTG and bilateral postcentral gyri was associated with better divergent thinking performance, but this study revealed no training effects on divergent thinking and resting state functional connectivity; they only report that changes of divergent thinking performance over time were predicted by connectivity between the left SMG and right occipital brain regions
Behavioral findings revealed that in TG2 3 weeks of extensive verbal creativity training were effective in improving verbal creative ideation
Summary
In view of the rapidly increasing complexity of the world around us “creativity is more important than ever before” [Runco, 2004, p. 658] and is even considered as “a useful and effective response to evolutionary changes “[Runco, 2004], since it allows the individual to flexibly respond to the continuously changing conditions around us. Research from the psychometric research tradition has revealed some factors that may unfold beneficial effects on creativity, among the most important being positive affect [e.g., Ashby et al, 1999; Baas et al, 2008] and cognitive-oriented interventions. The latter intend to improve creativity-related skills by providing specific rules, techniques, or strategies to develop appropriate cognitive skills for the domain at hand [Scott et al, 2004]. Results revealed that all three training conditions yielded training effects on both fluency and originality in the Alternative Uses task (AUT)
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