Brain Functional Connectivity of Creativity : Psychophysiological Interaction of Convergent and Divergent Thinking

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary WorksRGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)peer-review

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Author(s)

  • Abhishek Uday Patil
  • Deepa Madathil
  • De-Jung Tseng
  • Daisy Lan Hung
  • Chih-Mao Huang

Detail(s)

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationA Supplement of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
PublisherMIT Press Journals
Pages138
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2019

Publication series

Name
ISSN (Print)1096-8857

Conference

Title26th Annual Meeting of Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS 2019)
PlaceUnited States
CitySan Francisco
Period23 - 26 March 2019

Abstract

Creativity is defined as one’s ability to produce unique or unusual thoughts for problem solving. Such creative thoughts could refer to convergent thinking (i.e. combining remote ideas to produce best solution for specific problem) and divergent thinking (i.e. producing multiple unusual solutions for a particular problem). Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) metaanalysis in convergent and divergent thinking reported that several frontal and parieto-temporal activations are associated with creativity. However, whether two types of creativity involve different dynamic interaction of brain network is unknown. In this fMRI study, we applied psycho-physiological interactions (PPIs) approach to investigate dynamic interaction of functional brain connectivity during convergent and divergent thinking tasks. Twenty-five young participants were instructed to perform the Chinese-Word remote associates test (CAT) to represent the process of convergent thinking, and alternative uses task (AUT) to measure the processes of divergent thinking during scanning. A whole-brain analysis showed primarily left-lateralized fronto-parietal activations for CAT whereas bilateral cortical activation for AUT. PPIs analysis of CAT showed that hippocampus was positively connected to left inferior frontal gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, and left temporal regions, possibly indicating the controlled retrieval and selection of sematic memory. In contrast, PPIs analysis of AUT howed that hippocampus was positively connected to right posterior parietal lobule enabling participants to integrate thoughts related to selecting remotely associated concepts. Our findings provide evidence that functional connectivity of convergent and divergent creativity involve distributed but differential dynamic interactions of brain regions that reflect the specialized network-based processing of diverse creative thinking.

Citation Format(s)

Brain Functional Connectivity of Creativity: Psychophysiological Interaction of Convergent and Divergent Thinking. / Patil, Abhishek Uday; Madathil, Deepa ; Tseng, De-Jung et al.
A Supplement of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. MIT Press Journals, 2019. p. 138 D135.

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary WorksRGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)peer-review