Poster No:
969
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Qunlin Chen1, Ke Ding2, Yoed N. Kenett2, Jiang Qiu1
Institutions:
1Southwest University, Chongqing, China, 2Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Ke Ding
Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa, Israel
Jiang Qiu
Southwest University
Chongqing, China
Introduction:
Existing research and reviews on the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying creative thinking consistently point to the involvement of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in various creative tasks. Neuroimaging studies have consistently shown recruitment of bilateral IFG during creative idea generation (Abraham et al., 2012; Becker et al., 2020; Benedek et al., 2014). This involvement is associated with the controlled memory retrieva, potentially boosting the retrieval of relatively weak semantic associations (Becker et al., 2020; Ralph et al., 2017). Converging evidence for the left IFG suggests its implication in a releasing effect during creative production. Patients with damage to the left IFG, for example, exhibit higher scores on divergent thinking tasks and intensified artistic creativity (Ovando-Tellez et al., 2019). A recent tDCS meta-analysis demonstrated a significant positive effect linked to excitatory stimulation of the right IFG through anodal tDCS, while an inhibitory effect was observed over the left IFG. According to the hemispheric balance hypothesis, inhibiting the left IFG leads to a preponderance of the right, facilitating the production of novel ideas. Despite growing evidence suggesting that bilateral IFG contributes to the originality of creative ideas during both the generation and evaluation phases, it remains unclear whether there is a differential functional role of the right and left IFG and how they are involved in creative idea generation.
Methods:
In this study, we initially conducted two independent task-fMRI procedures involving single-response (Exp. 1, 28 subjects) and multi-response (Exp. 2, 32 subjects) alternative using tasks (AUT), respectively. In the AUT, subjects were asked to come up with one (Exp. 1) or four (Exp. 2) novel and unique uses for each concrete objects; for the control conditions, subjects were asked to think of one or our common and appropriate using for each concrete objects. Through these two experiments, we compared brain activation patterns and differences between the right and left IFG during novel idea generation. In the Exp. 3 (38 subjects), we utilized high-definition transcranial direct current (tDCS) stimulation to modulate the activity of both the right and left IFG, and further examined the changing pattern of idea generation measured by the serial order effect in the multi-response alternative task.
Results:
Exp. 1 and Exp. 2 showed significantly greater activation in the left IFG compared to the right IFG in novel using condition, howerver, activation in the right IFG was more associated with high-quality originality ideas, whereas the left IFG was more associated with common-quality ideas. Exp. 3 showed that anodal tDCS over the right IFG increased response time (RT) for outputting novel ideas, whereas anodal tDCS in the left IFG decreased RT for outputting novel ideas.
Conclusions:
These findings indicate that the left IFG contributes to the creative process through flexible semantic processing, leading to the generation of more novel ideas in the early stage. Conversely, the right IFG is involved in generating original ideas by inhibiting prepotent semantic associations, resulting in the production of unique ideas in the later stage. In summary, the right and left IFG contribute to the generation of creative ideas through slow and fast semantic retrieval processing, respectively.
Brain Stimulation:
TDCS 2
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Higher Cognitive Functions Other 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Univariate Modeling
Keywords:
Other - creative thinking; inferior frontal gyrus; inhibition; flexible semantic processes; fast and slow creative processing
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Abraham, A., Pieritz, K., Thybusch, K., Rutter, B., Kröger, S., Schweckendiek, J., . . . Hermann, C. (2012). Creativity and the brain: uncovering the neural signature of conceptual expansion. Neuropsychologia, 50(8), 1906-1917.
Becker, M., Sommer, T., & Kühn, S. (2020). Inferior frontal gyrus involvement during search and solution in verbal creative problem solving: A parametric fMRI study. NeuroImage, 206, 116294.
Benedek, M., Jauk, E., Fink, A., Koschutnig, K., Reishofer, G., Ebner, F., & Neubauer, A. C. (2014). To create or to recall? Neural mechanisms underlying the generation of creative new ideas. NeuroImage, 88, 125-133.
Ovando-Tellez, M. P., Bieth, T., Bernard, M., & Volle, E. (2019). The contribution of the lesion approach to the neuroscience of creative cognition. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 27, 100-108.
Ralph, M. A. L., Jefferies, E., Patterson, K., & Rogers, T. T. (2017). The neural and computational bases of semantic cognition. Nature reviews neuroscience, 18(1), 42-55.