Use of the 'double diamond' design framework to nurture creativity in life sciences research.

Designers' work processes are shaped by a four-phase 'discover, define, develop, and deliver' model that alternates between divergent and convergent thinking. We suggest consideration of this conceptual scaffold in 'design sprint' workshops for graduate students in the life sciences and in design to promote creativity, interdisciplinary collaboration, and knowledge cocreation.

Default mode network electrophysiological dynamics and causal role in creative thinking.

The default mode network (DMN) is a widely distributed, intrinsic brain network thought to play a crucial role in internally-directed cognition. The present study employs stereo-electroencephalography in 13 human patients, obtaining high resolution neural recordings across multiple canonical DMN regions during two processes that have been associated with creative thinking: spontaneous and divergent thought. We probe these two DMN-associated higher cognitive functions through mind wandering and alternate uses tasks, respectively. Our results reveal DMN recruitment during both tasks, as well as a task-specific dissociation in spatiotemporal response dynamics. When compared to the fronto-parietal network, DMN activity was characterized by a stronger increase in gamma band power (30-70 Hz) coupled with lower theta band power (4-8 Hz). The difference in activity between the two networks was especially strong during the mind wandering task. Within the DMN, we found that the tasks showed different dynamics, with the alternate uses task engaging the DMN more during the initial stage of the task, and mind wandering in the later stage. Gamma power changes were mainly driven by lateral DMN sites, while theta power displayed task-specific effects. During alternate uses task, theta changes did not show spatial differences within the DMN, while mind wandering was associated to an early lateral and late dorsomedial DMN engagement. Furthermore, causal manipulations of DMN regions using direct cortical stimulation preferentially decreased the originality of responses in the alternative uses task, without affecting fluency or mind wandering. Our results suggest that DMN activity is flexibly modulated as a function of specific cognitive processes and supports its causal role in divergent thinking. These findings shed light on the neural constructs supporting different forms of cognition and provide causal evidence for the role of DMN in the generation of original connections among concepts.

Recognizing ideas generated in a creative task: the roles of the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex in facilitating self-generated learning.

Creative idea generation plays an important role in promoting successful memory formation. Yet, its underlying neural correlates remain unclear. We investigated the self-generated learning of creative ideas motivated by the schema-linked interactions between medial prefrontal and medial temporal regions framework. This was achieved by having participants generate ideas in the alternative uses task, self-evaluating their ideas based on novelty and source (i.e. new or old), and then later being tested on the recognition performance of the generated ideas. At the behavioral level, our results indicated superior performances in discriminating novel ideas, highlighting the novelty effect on memory. At the neural level, the regions-of-interest analyses revealed that successful recognition of novel ideas was associated with greater activations in the hippocampus (HPC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during ideation. However, only activation in the right HPC was positively related to the successful recognition of novel ideas. Importantly, the weaker the connection between the right HPC and left mPFC, the higher the recognition accuracy of novel ideas. Moreover, activations in the right HPC and left mPFC were both effective predictors of successful recognition of novel ideas. These findings uniquely highlight the role of novelty in promoting self-generated learning of creative ideas.

Evaluation standards regulate the generation and selection of novel ideas in creative behaviors: insights from individual differences in event-related potentials.

Evaluation is generally considered to occur after the generation of novel ideas to select truly creative ideas; however, evaluation may occur concurrently with the generation and regulate its efficiency. To test this hypothesis, 120 participants who held strict, moderate, or loose evaluation standards were grouped, and neural responses related to novel idea generation were compared retrospectively. The results showed that lower N400 amplitudes and greater LSP amplitudes were simultaneously elicited by objectively defined novel and usable options than by novel but unusable options among participants with moderate standards but not among participants with strict or loose standards. Evaluation standards influence the efficiency of novel idea generation; neither strict nor loose evaluation standards are conducive to fully resolving cognitive conflicts and generating novel ideas. Moreover, lower N400 amplitudes and greater LSP amplitudes were simultaneously elicited by the subjectively rated novel and usable option than by the novel but unusable option among participants with strict and moderate standards but not among participants with loose standards. Evaluation standards influence the selection among the generated ideas; participants in the strict and moderate groups made a wise choice based on the degree of conflict resolution, whereas participants in the loose group did not.

Teach a man to fish: Hyper-brain evidence on scaffolding strategy enhancing creativity acquisition and transfer.

Creativity is an indispensable competency in today's innovation-driven society. Yet, the influences of instructional strategy, a key determinant of educational outcomes, on the creativity-fostering process remains an unresolved mystery. We proposed that instructional strategy affects creativity cultivation and further investigated the intricate neural mechanisms underlying this relationship. In a naturalistic laboratory setting, 66 instructor-learner dyads were randomized into three groups (scaffolding, explanation, and control), with divergent thinking instructions separately. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning simultaneously collected brain signals in the prefrontal cortex and temporal-parietal junction regions. Results indicated that learners instructed with a scaffolding strategy demonstrated superior creative performance both in acquisition (direct learning) and transfer (use in a novel context) of creativity skills, compared to pretest levels. In contrast, the control and explanation groups did not exhibit such effects. Notably, we also observed remarkable interbrain neural synchronization (INS) between instructors and learners in the left superior frontal cortex in the scaffolding group, but not in the explanation or control groups. Furthermore, INS positively predicted enhancements in creativity performance (acquisition and transfer), indicating that it is a crucial neural mechanism in the creativity-fostering process. These findings reveal that scaffolding facilitates the acquisition and transfer of creativity and deepen our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the process of creativity-fostering. The current study provides valuable insights for implementing teaching strategies to fostering creativity.

Operating in a second language lowers cognitive interference during creative idea generation: Evidence from brain oscillations in bilinguals.

Tasks measuring human creativity overwhelmingly rely on both language comprehension and production. Although most of the world's population is bilingual, few studies have investigated the effects of language of operation on creative output. This is surprising given that fluent bilinguals master inhibitory control, a mechanism also at play in creative idea evaluation. Here, we compared creative output in the two languages of Polish(L1)-English(L2) bilinguals engaged in a cyclic adaptation of the Alternative Uses Task increasing the contribution of idea evaluation (convergent thinking). We show that Polish-English bilinguals suffer less cognitive interference when generating unusual uses for common objects in the L2 than the L1, without incurring a significant drop in idea originality. Right posterior alpha oscillation power, known to reflect creative thinking, increased over cycles. This effect paralleled the increase in originality ratings over cycles, and lower alpha power (8-10 Hz) was significantly greater in the L1 than the L2. Unexpectedly, we found greater beta (16.5-28 Hz) desynchronization in the L2 than the L1, suggesting that bilingual participants suffered less interference from competing mental representations when performing the task in the L2. Whereas creative output seems unaffected by language of operation overall, the drop in beta power in the L2 suggests that bilinguals are not subjected to the same level of semantic flooding in the second language as they naturally experience in their native language.

The brain markers of creativity measured by divergent thinking in childhood: Hippocampal volume and functional connectivity.

Creativity, a high-order cognitive ability, has received wide attention from researchers and educators who are dedicated to promoting its development throughout one's lifespan. Currently, creativity is commonly assessed with divergent thinking tasks, such as the Alternative Uses Task. Recent advancements in neuroimaging techniques have enabled the identification of brain markers for high-order cognitive abilities. One such brain structure of interest in this regard is the hippocampus, which has been found to play an important role in generating creative thoughts in adulthood. However, such role of the hippocampus in childhood is not clear. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the associations between creativity, as measured by divergent thinking, and both the volume of the hippocampus and its resting-state functional connectivity in 116 children aged 8-12 years. The results indicate significant relations between divergent thinking and the volume of the hippocampal head and the hippocampal tail, as well as the volume of a subfield comprising cornu ammonis 2-4 and dentate gyrus within the hippocampal body. Additionally, divergent thinking was significantly related to the differences between the anterior and the posterior hippocampus in their functional connectivity to other brain regions during rest. These results suggest that these two subregions may collaborate with different brain regions to support diverse cognitive processes involved in the generation of creative thoughts. In summary, these findings indicate that divergent thinking is significantly related to the structural and functional characteristics of the hippocampus, offering potential insights into the brain markers for creativity during the developmental stage.

Time course of EEG power during creative problem-solving with insight or remote thinking.

Problem-solving often requires creativity and is critical in everyday life. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying creative problem-solving remain poorly understood. Two mechanisms have been highlighted: the formation of new connections among problem elements and insight solving, characterized by sudden realization of a solution. In this study, we investigated EEG activity during a modified version of the remote associates test, a classical insight problem task that requires finding a word connecting three unrelated words. This allowed us to explore the brain correlates associated with the semantic remoteness of connections (by varying the remoteness of the solution word across trials) and with insight solving (identified as a Eurêka moment reported by the participants). Semantic remoteness was associated with power increase in the alpha band (8-12 Hz) in a left parieto-temporal cluster, the beta band (13-30 Hz) in a right fronto-temporal cluster in the early phase of the task, and the theta band (3-7 Hz) in a bilateral frontal cluster just prior to participants' responses. Insight solving was associated with power increase preceding participants' responses in the alpha and gamma (31-60 Hz) bands in a left temporal cluster and the theta band in a frontal cluster. Source reconstructions revealed the brain regions associated with these clusters. Overall, our findings shed new light on some of the mechanisms involved in creative problem-solving.

The role of alpha oscillations in free- and goal-directed semantic associations.

Alpha oscillations are known to play a central role in several higher-order cognitive functions, especially selective attention, working memory, semantic memory, and creative thinking. Nonetheless, we still know very little about the role of alpha in the generation of more remote semantic associations, which is key to creative and semantic cognition. Furthermore, it remains unclear how these oscillations are shaped by the intention to "be creative," which is the case in most creativity tasks. We aimed to address these gaps in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we compared alpha oscillatory activity (using a method which distinguishes genuine oscillatory activity from transient events) during the generation of free associations which were more vs. less distant from a given concept. In Experiment 2, we replicated these findings and also compared alpha oscillatory activity when people were generating free associations versus associations with the instruction to be creative (i.e. goal-directed). We found that alpha was consistently higher during the generation of more distant semantic associations, in both experiments. This effect was widespread, involving areas in both left and right hemispheres. Importantly, the instruction to be creative seems to increase alpha phase synchronisation from left to right temporal brain areas, suggesting that intention to be creative changed the flux of information in the brain, likely reflecting an increase in top-down control of semantic search processes. We conclude that goal-directed generation of remote associations relies on top-down mechanisms compared to when associations are freely generated.

Aha! and D'oh! experiences enhance learning for incidental information-new evidence supports the insight memory advantage.

Research on creative problem-solving finds that solutions achieved via spontaneous insight (i.e., Aha! moment) are better remembered than solutions reached without this sense of epiphany, referred to as an "insight memory advantage." We hypothesized that the insight memory advantage can spread to incidental information encoded in the moments surrounding insight as well. Participants (N = 291) were first given Rebus puzzles. After they indicated that they had found a solution, but before they could submit this solution, they were presented with scholastic facts that were incidental and unrelated to the problem at hand. Participants indicated whether they reached the solution via either insight or a step-by-step analysis. Memory results showed better performance for incidental scholastic facts presented when problem solving was accompanied by a spontaneous (Aha! experience) and induced (D'oh! experience) insight compared with solutions reached with analysis. This finding suggests that the memory advantage for problems solved via insight spreads to other unrelated information encoded in close temporal proximity and has implications for novel techniques to enhance learning in educational settings.

Divergent and Convergent Creativity Are Different Kinds of Foraging.

According to accounts of neural reuse and embodied cognition, higher-level cognitive abilities recycle evolutionarily ancient mechanisms for perception and action. Here, building on these accounts, we investigate whether creativity builds on our capacity to forage in space ("creativity as strategic foraging"). We report systematic connections between specific forms of creative thinking-divergent and convergent-and corresponding strategies for searching in space. U.S. American adults completed two tasks designed to measure creativity. Before each creativity trial, participants completed an unrelated search of a city map. Between subjects, we manipulated the search pattern, with some participants seeking multiple, dispersed spatial locations and others repeatedly converging on the same location. Participants who searched divergently in space were better at divergent thinking but worse at convergent thinking; this pattern reversed for participants who had converged repeatedly on a single location. These results demonstrate a targeted link between foraging and creativity, thus advancing our understanding of the origins and mechanisms of high-level cognition.

The Evolution of the Optimization of Cognitive and Social Functions in the Cerebellum and Thereby the Rise of Homo sapiens Through Cumulative Culture.

The evolution of the prominent role of the cerebellum in the development of composite tools, and cumulative culture, leading to the rise of Homo sapiens is examined. Following Stout and Hecht's (2017) detailed description of stone-tool making, eight key repetitive involvements of the cerebellum are highlighted. These key cerebellar learning involvements include the following: (1) optimization of cognitive-social control, (2) prediction (3) focus of attention, (4) automaticity of smoothness, appropriateness, and speed of movement and cognition, (5) refined movement and social cognition, (6) learns models of extended practice, (7) learns models of Theory of Mind (ToM) of teachers, (8) is predominant in acquisition of novel behavior and cognition that accrues from the blending of cerebellar models sent to conscious working memory in the cerebral cortex. Within this context, the evolution of generalization and blending of cerebellar internal models toward optimization of social-cognitive learning is described. It is concluded that (1) repetition of movement and social cognition involving the optimization of internal models in the cerebellum during stone-tool making was the key selection factor toward social-cognitive and technological advancement, (2) observational learning during stone-tool making was the basis for both technological and social-cognitive evolution and, through an optimizing positive feedback loop between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex, the development of cumulative culture occurred, and (3) the generalization and blending of cerebellar internal models related to the unconscious forward control of the optimization of imagined future states in working memory was the most important brain adaptation leading to intertwined advances in stone-tool technology, cognitive-social processes behind cumulative culture (including the emergence of language and art) and, thereby, with the rise of Homo sapiens.

Imaginative elaboration in agenesis of the corpus callosum: topic modeling and perplexity.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have found deficits in imaginative elaboration and social inference to be associated with agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC; Renteria-Vasquez et al., 2022; Turk et al., 2009). In the current study, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) responses from a neurotypical control group and a group of individuals with ACC were used to further study the capacity for imaginative elaboration and story coherence. METHOD: Topic modeling was employed utilizing Latent Diritchlet Allocation to characterize the narrative responses to the pictures used in the TAT. A measure of the difference between models (perplexity) was used to compare the topics of the responses of individual participants to the common core model derived from the responses of the control group. Story coherence was tested using sentence-to-sentence Latent Semantic Analysis. RESULTS: Group differences in perplexity were statistically significant overall, and for each card individually (p < .001). There were no differences between the groups in story coherence. CONCLUSIONS: TAT narratives from persons with ACC were normally coherent, but more conventional (i.e., more similar to the core text) compared to those of neurotypical controls. Individuals with ACC can make conventional social inferences about socially ambiguous stimuli, but are restricted in their imaginative elaborations, resulting in less topical variability (lower perplexity values) compared to neurotypical controls.

Why creatives don't find the oddball odd: Neural and psychological evidence for atypical salience processing.

Creativity has previously been linked with various attentional phenomena, including unfocused or broad attention. Although this has typically been interpreted through an executive functioning framework, such phenomena may also arise from atypical incentive salience processing. Across two studies, we examine this hypothesis both neurally and psychologically. First we examine the relationship between figural creativity and event-related potentials during an audio-visual oddball task, finding that rater creativity of drawings is associated with a diminished P300 response at midline electrodes, while abstractness and elaborateness of the drawings is associated with an altered distribution of the P300 over posterior electrodes. These findings support the notion that creativity may involve an atypical attribution of salience to prominent information. We further explore the incentive salience hypothesis by examining relationships between creativity and a psychological indicator of incentive salience captured by participants' ratings of enjoyment (liking) and their motivation to pursue (wanting) diverse real world rewards, as well as their positive spontaneous thoughts about those rewards. Here we find enhanced motivation to pursue activities as well as a reduced relationship between the overall tendency to enjoy rewards and the tendency to pursue them. Collectively, these findings indicate that creativity may be associated with atypical allocation of attentional and motivational resources to novel and rewarding information, potentially allowing more types of information access to attentional resources and motivating more diverse behaviors. We discuss the possibility that salience attribution in creatives may be less dependent on task-relevance or hedonic pleasure, and suggest that atypical salience attribution may represent a trait-like feature of creativity.

The hyper-brain neural couplings distinguishing high-creative group dynamics: an fNIRS hyperscanning study.

This hyperscanning study aimed to identify a neural coupling profile that distinguishes high-creative group dynamics through functional near infrared spectroscopy. A total of 123 dyads completed one creativity task (alternative uses task, AUT) and contrast task (objective characteristics task). A K-means clustering analysis on AUT performance grouped 31/29 dyads into high/low-creative group, respectively. In comparison with the low-creative group, the high-creative group showed: (i) higher collective flexibility and delayed perspective-taking behaviors, but lower immediate perspective-taking behaviors; (ii) enhanced interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) between the left inferior frontal gyrus (lIFG) and right motor cortex, and nodal Eloc at the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG); (iii) declined intrapersonal functional connectivity between the right angular gyrus (rAG) and rSTG, and IBS between the lIFG and rAG. The enhanced neural couplings positively correlated with group creative performance, whereas a reverse correlation pattern existed in the declined ones. A leave-one-out cross-validation analysis showed these neural couplings reliably predicted group creative performance within the sample. These indicate that high-creative group dynamics are characterized by utilizing partners' shared information when necessary (e.g. encountering idea exhaustion). A neural coupling profile consisting of sophisticated interplays between regions within frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes may underlie high-creative creative dynamics.

Functional lateralization of the medial temporal lobe in novel associative processing during creativity evaluation.

Although hemispheric lateralization of creativity has been a longstanding topic of debate, the underlying neurocognitive mechanism remains poorly understood. Here we designed 2 types of novel stimuli-"novel useful and novel useless," adapted from "familiar useful" designs taken from daily life-to demonstrate how the left and right medial temporal lobe (MTL) respond to novel designs of different usefulness. Taking the "familiar useful" design as a baseline, we found that the right MTL showed increased activation in response to "novel useful" designs, followed by "novel useless" ones, while the left MTL only showed increased activation in response to "novel useful" designs. Calculating an asymmetry index suggests that usefulness processing is predominant in the left MTL, whereas the right MTL is predominantly involved in novelty processing. Moreover, the left parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) showed stronger functional connectivity with the anterior cingulate cortex when responding to "novel useless" designs. In contrast, the right PHG showed stronger connectivity with the amygdala, midbrain, and hippocampus. Critically, multivoxel representational similarity analyses revealed that the left MTL was more effective than the right MTL at distinguishing the usefulness differences in novel stimuli, while representational patterns in the left PHG positively predicted the post-behavior evaluation of "truly creative" products. These findings suggest an apparent dissociation of the left and right MTL in integrating the novelty and usefulness information and novel associative processing during creativity evaluation, respectively. Our results provide novel insights into a longstanding and controversial question in creativity research by demonstrating functional lateralization of the MTL in processing novel associations.

Creativity in verbal associations is linked to semantic control.

Although memory is known to play a key role in creativity, previous studies have not isolated the critical component processes and networks. We asked participants to generate links between words that ranged from strongly related to completely unrelated in long-term memory, delineating the neurocognitive processes that underpin more unusual versus stereotypical patterns of retrieval. More creative responses to strongly associated word-pairs were associated with greater engagement of episodic memory: in highly familiar situations, semantic, and episodic stores converge on the same information enabling participants to form a personal link between items. This pattern of retrieval was associated with greater engagement of core default mode network (DMN). In contrast, more creative responses to weakly associated word-pairs were associated with the controlled retrieval of less dominant semantic information and greater recruitment of the semantic control network, which overlaps with the dorsomedial subsystem of DMN. Although both controlled semantic and episodic patterns of retrieval are associated with activation within DMN, these processes show little overlap in activation. These findings demonstrate that controlled aspects of semantic cognition play an important role in verbal creativity.

Retrieval flexibility links to creativity: evidence from computational linguistic measure.

Creativity, the ability to generate original and valuable products, has long been linked to semantic retrieval processes. The associative theory of creativity posits flexible retrieval ability as an important basis for creative idea generation. However, there is insufficient research on how flexible memory retrieval acts on creative activities. This study aimed to capture different dynamic aspects of retrieval processes and examine the behavioral and neural associations between retrieval flexibility and creativity. We developed 5 metrics to quantify retrieval flexibility based on previous studies, which confirmed the important role of creativity. Our findings showed that retrieval flexibility was positively correlated with multiple creativity-related behavior constructs and can promote distinct search patterns in different creative groups. Moreover, high flexibility was associated with the lifetime of a specific brain state during rest, characterized by interactions among large-scale cognitive brain systems. The flexible functional connectivity within and between default mode, executive control, and salience provides further evidence on brain dynamics of creativity. Retrieval flexibility mediated the links between the lifetime of the related brain state and creativity. This new approach is expected to enhance our knowledge of the role of retrieval flexibility in creativity from a dynamic perspective.

Preventing prefrontal dysfunction by tDCS modulates stress-induced creativity impairment in women: an fNIRS study.

Stress is a major external factor threatening creative activity. The study explored whether left-lateralized activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex manipulated through transcranial direct current stimulation could alleviate stress-induced impairment in creativity. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to explore the underlying neural mechanisms. Ninety female participants were randomly assigned to three groups that received stress induction with sham stimulation, stress induction with true stimulation (anode over the left and cathode over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), and control manipulation with sham stimulation, respectively. Participants underwent the stress or control task after the transcranial direct current stimulation manipulation, and then completed the Alternative Uses Task to measure creativity. Behavioral results showed that transcranial direct current stimulation reduced stress responses in heart rate and anxiety. The functional near-infrared spectroscopy results revealed that transcranial direct current stimulation alleviated dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex under stress, as evidenced by higher activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and frontopolar cortex, as well as stronger inter-hemispheric and intra-hemispheric functional connectivity within the prefrontal cortex. Further analysis demonstrated that the cortical regulatory effect prevented creativity impairment induced by stress. The findings validated the hemispheric asymmetry hypothesis regarding stress and highlighted the potential for brain stimulation to alleviate stress-related mental disorders and enhance creativity.

Letting leaders spontaneously emerge yields better creative outcomes and higher leader-follower interbrain synchrony during creative group communication.

This study aimed to investigate how the ways leaders arise (appointed vs. emergent) affect the leader-follower interaction during creative group communication. Hyperscanning technique was adopted to reveal the underlying interpersonal neural correlates using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Participants were assigned into 3-person groups to complete a creative problem-solving task. These groups were randomly split into conditions of appointed (condition A) and emergent (condition E) leaders. Creative group outcomes were better in condition E, accompanied by more frequent perspective-taking behaviors between leaders and followers. The interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) increment for leader-follower pairs was significantly higher at the right angular gyrus (rAG), between the rAG and the right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG), and between the right middle temporal gyrus and the right motor cortex in condition E and positively correlated with perspective-taking behaviors between leaders and followers. The graph-based analysis showed higher nodal betweenness of the rAG and the rSMG in condition E. These results indicated the neural coupling of brain regions involved in mentalizing, semantic processing and motor imagery may underlie the dynamic information transmission between leaders and followers during creative group communication.