Semantic associative abilities and executive control functions predict novelty and appropriateness of idea generation.

Novelty and appropriateness are two fundamental components of creativity. However, the way in which novelty and appropriateness are separated at behavioral and neural levels remains poorly understood. In the present study, we aim to distinguish behavioral and neural bases of novelty and appropriateness of creative idea generation. In alignment with two established theories of creative thinking, which respectively, emphasize semantic association and executive control, behavioral results indicate that novelty relies more on associative abilities, while appropriateness relies more on executive functions. Next, employing a connectome predictive modeling (CPM) approach in resting-state fMRI data, we define two functional network-based models-dominated by interactions within the default network and by interactions within the limbic network-that respectively, predict novelty and appropriateness (i.e., cross-brain prediction). Furthermore, the generalizability and specificity of the two functional connectivity patterns are verified in additional resting-state fMRI and task fMRI. Finally, the two functional connectivity patterns, respectively mediate the relationship between semantic association/executive control and novelty/appropriateness. These findings provide global and predictive distinctions between novelty and appropriateness in creative idea generation.

Connectivity-based neuromarker for children's inhibitory control ability and its relevance to body mass index.

Preserving a normal body mass index (BMI) is crucial for the healthy growth and development of children. As a core aspect of executive functions, inhibitory control plays a pivotal role in maintaining a normal BMI, which is key to preventing issues of childhood obesity. By studying individual variations in inhibitory control performance and its associated connectivity-based neuromarker in a sample of primary school students (N = 64; 9-12 yr), we aimed to unravel the pathway through which inhibitory control impacts children's BMI. Utilizing resting-state functional MRI scans and a connectivity-based psychometric prediction framework, we found that enhanced inhibitory control abilities were primarily associated with increased functional connectivity in brain structures vital to executive functions, such as the superior frontal lobule, superior parietal lobule, and posterior cingulate cortex. Conversely, inhibitory control abilities displayed a negative relationship with functional connectivity originating from reward-related brain structures, such as the orbital frontal and ventral medial prefrontal lobes. Furthermore, we revealed that both inhibitory control and its corresponding neuromarker can moderate the association between food-related delayed gratification and BMI in children. However, only the neuromarker of inhibitory control maintained its moderating effect on children's future BMI, as determined in the follow-up after one year. Overall, our findings shed light on the potential mechanisms of how inhibitory control in children impacts BMI, highlighting the utility of the connectivity-based neuromarker of inhibitory control in the context of childhood obesity.

Elevated BMI impacts brain-state dynamics within the sensorimotor-to-transmodal hierarchy.

OBJECTIVE: Overweight and obesity, as commonly indicated by a higher BMI, are associated with functional alterations in the brain, which may potentially result in cognitive decline and emotional illness. However, the manner in which these detrimental impacts manifest in the brain's dynamic characteristics remains largely unknown. METHODS: Based on two independent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data sets (Behavioral-Brain Research Project of Chinese Personality, n = 1923; Human Connectome Project, n = 998), the current study employed a Hidden Markov model to identify the spatiotemporal features of brain activity states. Subsequently, the study examined the changes in brain-state dynamics and the corresponding functional outcomes that arise with an increase in BMI. RESULTS: Elevated BMI tends to shift the brain's activity states toward a greater emphasis on a specific set of states, i.e., the metastate, that are relevant to the joint activities of sensorimotor systems, making it harder to transfer to the metastate of transmodal systems. These findings were reconfirmed in a longitudinal sample (Behavioral-Brain Research Project of Chinese Personality, n = 34) that exhibited a significant increase in BMI at follow-up. Importantly, the alternation of brain-state dynamics specifically mediated the relationships between BMI and adverse functional outcomes, including cognitive decline and symptoms of mental illness. CONCLUSIONS: The altered brain-state dynamics within the sensorimotor-to-transmodal hierarchy provide new insights into obesity-related brain dysfunctions and mental health issues.

Diverse functional interaction driven by control-default network hubs supports creative thinking.

Complex cognitive processes, like creative thinking, rely on interactions among multiple neurocognitive processes to generate effective and innovative behaviors on demand, for which the brain's connector hubs play a crucial role. However, the unique contribution of specific hub sets to creative thinking is unknown. Employing three functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets (total N = 1,911), we demonstrate that connector hub sets are organized in a hierarchical manner based on diversity, with "control-default hubs"-which combine regions from the frontoparietal control and default mode networks-positioned at the apex. Specifically, control-default hubs exhibit the most diverse resting-state connectivity profiles and play the most substantial role in facilitating interactions between regions with dissimilar neurocognitive functions, a phenomenon we refer to as "diverse functional interaction". Critically, we found that the involvement of control-default hubs in facilitating diverse functional interaction robustly relates to creativity, explaining both task-induced functional connectivity changes and individual creative performance. Our findings suggest that control-default hubs drive diverse functional interaction in the brain, enabling complex cognition, including creative thinking. We thus uncover a biologically plausible explanation that further elucidates the widely reported contributions of certain frontoparietal control and default mode network regions in creativity studies.

Common brain activation and connectivity patterns supporting the generation of creative uses and creative metaphors.

Recent studies and reviews suggest that creative thinking is at least partly a domain-general cognitive ability, dependent on consistent patterns of brain activity including co-activation of the executive control and default mode networks. However, the degree to which the generation of ideas in different creative tasks relies on common brain activity remains unknown. In this fMRI study, participants were asked to generate creative ideas in both a uses generation task and a metaphor production task. Whole-brain analysis showed that generation of creative uses (relative to conventional uses) activated the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), medial prefrontal cortex, left supplementary motor area, left angular gyrus (AG), left thalamus, and bilateral cerebellum posterior lobe. The generation of creative metaphors (relative to conventional metaphors) activated dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and left AG. Importantly, regions active in both creative use and creative metaphor generation included the dmPFC and left AG. Psycho-physiological interactions analysis showed that the left AG was positively connected to the right precentral gyrus, and the dmPFC to the left IFG in both creative tasks. Our findings provide evidence that the generation of creative ideas relies on a core creative network related to remote semantic association-making and conceptual integration, offering new insight into the domain-general mechanisms underlying creative thinking.

Exploring the behavioral and neural correlates of semantic distance in creative writing.

Creativity is critical to economic growth and societal progress. However, assessing creativity using objective approaches remains a challenge. To address this, we employ three objective indicators based on semantic distance to quantify the originality and appropriateness of creativity by analyzing long texts in a story-writing experiment. Global and local distances were generated separately by computing the mean distance of the whole text and the distance between adjacent sentences, and they were positively correlated with story originality in writing. Global cohesion was positively correlated with story rationality in writing, as generated by computing the semantic coherence between the text and story context. At the behavioral level, three semantic indicators were used to measure originality and appropriateness of creativity and reflected individual differences, including creative achievement and creative personality. At the neural level, global distance was best predicted by the features of the salience and default networks, whereas global cohesion corresponded to the control and salience networks. These findings point to a stable neural basis for semantic indicators and verify the idea of separating different dimensions of creativity. Taken together, our results demonstrate the significance of semantic indicators in assessing creativity and provide insights into analyzing long texts in natural paradigm.

Regional grey matter volume in the posterior cingulate cortex predicts positive risk-taking: A moderation model.

Positive risk-taking is a crucial element of individual creativity and social development. However, little is known regarding the relation between individual neural differences and positive risk-taking. In addition, critical thinking (CT) and gender have been proven to be two important individual-specific factors associated with risk-taking behaviour, and different levels of CT and gender may have diverse effects on the relationship between brain structure and positive risk-taking. The present study examined the relationship between positive risk-taking and regional grey matter volume (rGMV) in 292 healthy participants. The results showed that positive risk-taking was significantly positively associated with the rGMV of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). In addition, this study investigated individual differences in critical thinking and found that it moderated the relationship between rGMV and positive risk-taking. Individuals with lower CT had a stronger association between rGMV and positive risk-taking. Further analysis showed that for males, a greater rGMV was significantly linked to higher positive risk-taking tendency. These findings suggest that PCC evaluates risk and serves as a behavioural adaptation hub for positive risk-taking. This study thereby contributes to the literature on individual differences in brain structure and risk-taking by elucidating the moderating effects of CT and gender in healthy adults.

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.

Reduced hippocampal-cortical connectivity during memory suppression predicts the ability to forget unwanted memories.

The ability to suppress unwelcome memories is important for productivity and well-being. Successful memory suppression is associated with hippocampal deactivations and a concomitant disruption of this region's functionality. Much of the previous neuroimaging literature exploring such suppression-related hippocampal modulations has focused on the region's negative coupling with the prefrontal cortex. Task-based changes in functional connectivity between the hippocampus and other brain regions still need further exploration. In the present study, we utilize psychophysiological interactions and seed connectome-based predictive modeling to investigate the relationship between the hippocampus and the rest of the brain as 134 participants attempted to suppress unwanted memories during the Think/No-Think task. The results show that during retrieval suppression, the right hippocampus exhibited decreased functional connectivity with visual cortical areas (lingual and cuneus gyrus), left nucleus accumbens and the brain-stem that predicted superior forgetting of unwanted memories on later memory tests. Validation tests verified that prediction performance was not an artifact of head motion or prediction method and that the negative features remained consistent across different brain parcellations. These findings suggest that systemic memory suppression involves more than the modulation of hippocampal activity-it alters functional connectivity patterns between the hippocampus and visual cortex, leading to successful forgetting.

The impact of knowledge on poetry composition: An fMRI investigation.

Poetry composition is an ecologically valid approach for investigating creative processes. However, little is known about how the brain creates poetry and about the role of knowledge during poetry composition. Here, we identified patterns of task-based functional connectivity during poetry composition by experts and novices under two experimental conditions (familiar vs unfamiliar themes) and one control condition. Poetry composition was related to large-scale network connectivity between the language network (LN) and the right executive control network (RECN), precuneus, and higher visual network. Under familiar themes, poetry composition recruited more functional connections between the RECN and default mode network, whereas using unfamiliar themes elicited more functional connections between sensorimotor and visual networks. Moreover, the strength of LN-RECN is positively correlated with originality in the familiar condition, while negatively correlated with originality in the unfamiliar condition. These results reveal the brain connectivity patterns and highlight the importance of knowledge underlying poetry composition.

"Neurotic people tend to eat less when disinhibited": The mediating role of food-related cognitive flexibility in restrained eaters.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to reveal the individual differences in Neuroticism and cognitive flexibility among successful restrained eaters (SREs), unsuccessful restrained eaters (UREs), and non-restrained eaters (NREs). Moreover, this study is dedicated to investigating whether certain personality traits and cognitive flexibility could concurrently influence disinhibited eating behaviors among restrained eaters and reveal the pathways through which they interact. METHODS: Female participants aged 17 and 24 years (NREs = 23; SREs = 24; UREs = 23) were assessed with body mass index (BMI) and appetite state measurement, the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. To measure behavioral and neural responses related to cognitive flexibility, participants were required to complete a food-related switching task, and their brain activities were recorded through the technique of electroencephalography (EEG). Here we analyzed two widely investigated components-the N2 and P3 components that separately relate to conflict monitoring and response inhibition. RESULTS: The behavioral performance of food-related task switching did not show significant between-group differences. However, in comparison to NREs and SREs, UREs elicited larger N2 and lower P3 amplitudes during task switching. In addition, UREs exhibited a lower level of Neuroticism than SREs and NREs. Furthermore, food-related task switching induced N2 amplitude fully mediated the association between Neuroticism and disinhibited eating behavior in restrained eaters controlled for BMI and negative affect. Importantly, when a parallel mediation model with N2 and P3 was built concurrently, N2 was still able to fully mediate the association. CONCLUSION: According to behavioral and neural evidence, increased N2 amplitude induced by food-related task switching totally mediated the negative association between Neuroticism and disinhibited eating in restrained eaters.

Resting-state functional connectome predicts individual differences in depression during COVID-19 pandemic.

Stressful life events are significant risk factors for depression, and increases in depressive symptoms have been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to explore the neural makers for individuals' depression during COVID-19, using connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM). Then we tested whether these neural markers could be used to identify groups at high/low risk for depression with a longitudinal dataset. The results suggested that the high-risk group demonstrated a higher level and increment of depression during the pandemic, as compared to the low-risk group. Furthermore, a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was used to discriminate major depression disorder patients and healthy controls, using neural features defined by CPM. The results confirmed the CPM's ability for capturing the depression-related patterns with individuals' resting-state functional connectivity signature. The exploration for the anatomy of these functional connectivity features emphasized the role of an emotion-regulation circuit and an interoception circuit in the neuropathology of depression. In summary, the present study augments current understanding of potential pathological mechanisms underlying depression during an acute and unpredictable life-threatening event and suggests that resting-state functional connectivity may provide potential effective neural markers for identifying susceptible populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Linking functional connectome gradient to individual creativity.

INTRODUCTION: Human brain network is organized as a hierarchical organization, exhibiting various connectome gradients. The principal gradient is anchored by the modality-specific primary areas and the transmodal regions. Previous studies have suggested that the unimodal-transmodal gradient in the functional connectome may offer an overarching framework for high-order cognitions of human brain. However, there is still a lacking of direct evidence to associate these two. OBJECTIVES: Therefore, we aim to explore the association between creativity, a typical human high-order cognitive function, and unimodal-transmodal gradient, using two independent datasets of young adults. METHODS: For each individual, we identified the unimodal-transmodal gradient in functional connectome and calculated its global measures. Then we correlated the individual creativity score with measures of unimodal-transmodal gradient at global-brain, subsystem, and regional level. RESULTS: The results suggested that better creative performance was associated with greater distance between primary areas and transmodal regions in gradient axes, and less distance between ventral attention network and default mode network. Individual creativity was also found positively correlated with regional gradients in ventral attention network, and negatively correlated with gradients of regions in visual cortex. CONCLUSION: Together, these findings directly link the unimodal-transmodal gradient to individual creativity, providing empirical evidence for the cognitive implications of functional connectome gradient.

The functional connectivity basis of creative achievement linked with openness to experience and divergent thinking.

Openness to experience and divergent thinking are considered to be critical in real-life creative achievement. However, there is still a lack of neural evidence to explain how creative achievement is related to openness to experience and divergent thinking. Here, a structural equation model and resting-state functional connectivity were used to investigate their relationships in college students. The structural equation model results repeatedly showed that openness to experience and divergent thinking are positively associated with creative achievement, and the resting-state functional connectivity results showed that openness to experience and divergent thinking were both correlated with the attention network and default mode network. However, openness to experience was also correlated with the primary sensorimotor network and frontoparietal control network. Mediation models further corroborated this result. Collectively, these findings support previous works and further indicate that different neural bases may underlie the associations of creative achievement with openness to experience and divergent thinking.

The trait and state negative affect can be separately predicted by stable and variable resting-state functional connectivity.

BACKGROUND: Many emotional experiences such as anxiety and depression are influenced by negative affect (NA). NA has both trait and state features, which play different roles in physiological and mental health. Attending to NA common to various emotional experiences and their trait-state features might help deepen the understanding of the shared foundation of related emotional disorders. METHODS: The principal component of five measures was calculated to indicate individuals' NA level. Applying the connectivity-based correlation analysis, we first identified resting-state functional connectives (FCs) relating to NA in sample 1 (n = 367), which were validated through an independent sample (n = 232; sample 2). Next, based on the variability of FCs across large timescale, we further divided the NA-related FCs into high- and low-variability groups. Finally, FCs in different variability groups were separately applied to predict individuals' neuroticism level (which is assumed to be the core trait-related factor underlying NA), and the change of NA level (which represents the state-related fluctuation of NA). RESULTS: The low-variability FCs were primarily within the default mode network (DMN) and between the DMN and dorsal attention network/sensory system and significantly predicted trait rather than state NA. The high-variability FCs were primarily between the DMN and ventral attention network, the fronto-parietal network and DMN/sensory system, and significantly predicted the change of NA level. CONCLUSIONS: The trait and state NA can be separately predicted by stable and variable spontaneous FCs with different attentional processes and emotion regulatory mechanisms, which could deepen our understanding of NA.

Dysfunction of the anterior and intermediate hippocampal functional network in major depressive disorders across the adult lifespan.

Accumulating evidence indicates that structural and functional abnormalities in hippocampal formation are linked to major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of hippocampal subfields in MDD remains unclear. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the RSFC of hippocampal subfields in a large sample of MDD patients. The results revealed that patients with MDD showed lower RSFC between the right anterior hippocampus and the insula, and the RSFC was inversely correlated with anxiety symptoms of depression. Depressed patients also showed decreased RSFC between the bilateral intermediate hippocampus and left nucleus accumbens (NAcc), and the hippocampus-NAcc circuit was negatively correlated with core symptoms of depression. The functional connectivity between the right anterior hippocampus and left postcentral gyrus increased with ageing in MDD patients compared with healthy controls. These findings suggest that the functional network of hippocampal subfields may underlie anxiety and core depression symptoms.

Linking temporal-parietal junction to internet addiction tendency: Moderating effect of critical thinking.

BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS: Internet addiction (IA) is a common internet-related addictive behavior. An enormous amount of previous research on IA disorders (IADs) have paid attention to the neural basis of abnormalities, while few studies have elucidated the neural distinctions of IA tendency in general population. METHODS: The current study examined the neural basis of IA tendency combining with voxel-based morphometry (VBM) from the average student body (N = 244). RESULTS: As the results presented, the gray matter density (GMD) of the left temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) was positively correlated with Internet Addiction Test (IAT) score. Further analysis revealed that critical thinking moderated the path between GMD in the TPJ and IA tendency. Specifically, the correlation between GMD in the TPJ and IA tendency was weaker for those with a higher critical thinking disposition. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Higher critical thinking show a hindering effect in susceptibility to IA based on the neural basis of temporal-parietal junction differences.

Left temporal pole contributes to creative thinking via an individual semantic network.

The neural substrates that contribute to creative thinking through the recruitment of semantic memory structures remain largely unknown. This study sought to investigate the properties of semantic networks using a semantic judgment rating task at the individual level and explore the relationship among creative abilities, the topological properties of semantic networks, and their underlying brain structures. We first used a semantic judgment rating to assess individual semantic networks and computed their topological properties. The analysis confirmed a significant correlation between the creative thinking abilities assessed by an alternate uses task and all three topological properties. In addition, voxel-based morphometry was employed to assess the neural correlates of gray matter volume (GMV) related to different topological properties of the semantic network. Results revealed a positive correlation between global efficiency and the left temporal pole cortex, considered to be involved in semantic information transmission and processing. Furthermore, mediation analysis found that the global efficiency of the individual semantic network mediated the association between the left temporal pole GMV and creative thinking, showing that the relationship between left temporal pole GMV and creative thinking may be affected by the semantic networks. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to combine a behavioral investigation of semantic networks with magnetic resonance imaging to shed light on the cerebral structural basis of semantic memory networks, in addition to their relationship to creativity.

Morphometry of the Hippocampus Across the Adult Life-Span in Patients with Depressive Disorders: Association with Neuroticism.

Neuroticism is one of the main endophenotypes of major depressive disorder (MDD) and is closely related to the negative effect systems of Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) domains. The relationship between neuroticism and aging is dynamic and complex. Moreover, reduced hippocampal volumes are probably the most frequently reported structural neuroimaging finding associated with MDD. However, it remains unclear to what extent hippocampal abnormalities are linked with age and neuroticism changes in people with depression through the adult life span. This study aimed to examine the interplay between aging and neuroticism on hippocampal morphometric across the adult life-span in a relative large sample of patients with depressive disorders (114 patients, 73 females, age range: 18-74 years) and healthy control (HC) subjects (112 healthy controls, 72 females, age range: 19-72 years). MDD patients showed reduced bilateral hippocampal volumes. The effect of aging on the left hippocampal showed linear and the right hippocampal volume non-linear trajectories throughout the adult life span in healthy groups and MDD groups respectively. The hippocampal atrophy was dynamically impacted by depression at the early stages of adult life. Furthermore, we observed that right hippocampal volume reduction was associated with higher neuroticism in depressive patients younger than 30.65 years old. Our results suggest that the age-related atrophy in the right hippocampal volume was more affected by individual differences in neuroticism among younger depressive patients. Hippocampal volume reduction as a vulnerability factor for early-onset and major geriatric depression may have a distinct endophenotype.

Functional Connectome Prediction of Anxiety Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: Increased anxiety in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely noted. The purpose of this study was to test whether the prepandemic functional connectome predicted individual anxiety induced by the pandemic. METHODS: Anxiety scores from healthy undergraduate students were collected during the severe and remission periods of the pandemic (first survey, February 22-28, 2020, N=589; second survey, April 24 to May 1, 2020, N=486). Brain imaging data and baseline (daily) anxiety ratings were acquired before the pandemic. The predictive performance of the functional connectome on individual anxiety was examined using machine learning and was validated in two external undergraduate student samples (N=149 and N=474). The clinical relevance of the findings was further explored by applying the connectome-based neuromarkers of pandemic-related anxiety to distinguish between individuals with specific mental disorders and matched healthy control subjects (generalized anxiety disorder, N=43; major depression, N=536; schizophrenia, N=72). RESULTS: Anxiety scores increased from the prepandemic baseline to the severe stage of the pandemic and remained high in the remission stage. The prepandemic functional connectome predicted pandemic-related anxiety and generalized to the external sample but showed poor performance for predicting daily anxiety. The connectome-based neuromarkers of pandemic-related anxiety further distinguished between participants with generalized anxiety and healthy control subjects but were not useful for diagnostic classification in major depression and schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate the feasibility of using the functional connectome to predict individual anxiety induced by major stressful events (e.g., the current global health crisis), which advances our understanding of the neurobiological basis of anxiety susceptibility and may have implications for developing targeted psychological and clinical interventions that promote the reduction of stress and anxiety.