123C Midterm 2 -- ch 3 and 4

commissures

lateralization and asymmetry of hemispheres

large bundles of nerve fibers that pass neural messages from one hemisphere to another

corpus callosum

largest commissure

commissurotomy

surgical severing of commissures

ex: split-brain patients

Hoppe (1998)

split-brain studies bearing on creativity

• commisurotomy patients

• instigated how much the affect (feeling/experience of emotion) split-brain patients experience when shown an emotional film (ex imply child being kidnapped)

Hoppe (1988) results

• split-brain patients were different from controls

  • had no affect—used unemotional terms (alexithymia)

  • described their reactions with episodic details

    • “dull, uninvolved, flat, lacking in expressiveness”

    • focused on the basic sequence of events, not the meaning of what was going on (ex didn’t comment on the significance of the empty swing)

takeaway: creativity involved both hemispheres to some degree

alexithymia

lack of emotional awareness, emotional relating, and social attachment

• difficulty distinguishing, identifying, and appreciating emotions

• difficulty describing feelings to other people

• decreased imaginal processes (ex scarcity of fantasies)

have difficulty being creative

• don’t get very excited about opportunities/challenges and aren’t interested of motivated to think creatively, solve problems, etc.

TenHouten (1994)

• split-brain patients (and controls) watched 3-minute film portraying (with images and background music) death of baby and boy

• subjects asked questions about the film, and asked to write 4 sentences expressing what they felt about the film

TenHouten (1994) results

• split-brain patients more alexithymic than control subjects

• used few affect-laden words and relatively few adjectives, with languages that was flat, dull, uninvolved, lacking in expression

  • less likely to consider/imagine symbols in the film

• lacking creativity in split-brain subjects’’ verbal production

again enforcing idea that creativity appears to involve interaction of both hemispheres, based on evidence that split-brain patients seem to show impairments to creativity

dominant hemisphere

handedness and hemisphericity

the hemisphere that tends to be more active while performing certain cognitive functions

• researchers have sometimes used a person’s handedness as an indicator of hemispheric dominance

  • in general, haven’t been many differences found in creativity of left vs right-handers

Burke et al (1989)

• gave both visual and verbal divergent thinking tasks to left-handers and right-handers

results:

• left-handers did slightly better on 4 visual tests of divergent thinking (only one was significant)

• no difference in verbal divergent thinking tests

conclusions:

• in creative activities where lefties have an advantage, it may be because they’ve developed a creative “coping” skill from having to adjust to “right-handed” environments (right-handed classroom desks, etc.)

• may contribute to their flexibility and creative thinking

Peterson and Lansky (1977)

creative difference between lefties and righties in creative populations

• looked at University of Cincinnati architecture program

results

• 29% of faculty left-handed (compared to ~10% in general pop.)

  • left-handers perform better in program than right-handers

  • in general, more left-handers apply to architecture schools

• looking ad handedness is not a direct measure of brain function, it is only inferred based on their dominant hand — the usefulness of this information regarding lateralization is limited

Martindale and Hasenfus (1978)

EEG Studies and Creativity

• took EEG readings of 12 creative-writing students as they went though phases of story-writing activity:

  • waiting for study to begin

  • during a 3-minute inspiration period period (thinking about what they would write)

  • while actually writing the story (elaboration place)

• students had been rated in creativity by their creative writing professor

  • asked to make up a story about a man who meets a woman and asks her out

  • asked to use their imagination and make up a story of who the man and woman are, how they met, and what will happen

  • specifically asked to be creative and original

Martindale and Hausenfus (1978) results

EEG Studies and Creativity

• highly-creative writers: had higher alpha activity (brain waves in the 8-12 Hz range) during the inspiration phase than during the elaboration phase

• less creative writers: no difference in EEG activity during any of the phases of the process

Martindale and Hausenfus (1978): Experiment 2

EEG Studies and Creativity

• 16 subjects performed similar (fantasy) story-writing task, except….

  • creativity measured by RAT

  • researchers varied whether or not subjects were specifically told to be creative and original

Martindale and Hausenfus (1978): Experiment 2 results

• found the same increase in alpha activity during inspiration phase for highly-creative subjects, but only when they were instructed to be creative and original

  • no difference when NOT instructed to be creative, regardless of subject creativity level

= evidence of change of brain activity when creative thinking (as compared to non-creative thinking) is going on!

• when someone highly creative is trying to be creative

Martindale et al (1986)

EEG Studies of Creativity

• investigated differences in EEG activity when one is involved in primary process thinking compared to secondary process thinking

  • studies suggest that creative people employ more primary process thinking and that there is higher level of primary process content in the fantasy narratives of more creative subjects (as opposed to less creative subjects)

• researchers recorded EEG activity as subjects wrote a fantasy story

• researchers also evaluated stories in terms of primary process content (using the regressive imagery dictionary)

primary process cognition

studied in Martindale et al (1986)

Freud

• irrational, free associative, perceptual thinking

• present in children, dreaming, and psychotic states

secondary process cognition

studied in Martindale et al (1986)

Freud

• logical, realistic

• normal, waking consciousness in adults

regressive imagery dictionary

used in Martindale et al (1986) to test primary process content

• identifies words and phrases that are indicative of primary process thinking

Martindale et al (1986) results

EEG Studies of Creativity

• theory: primary process cognition is related to a pattern of greater right-hemisphere activation than left-hemisphere activation

results:

• basal asymmetry (creative right-hemisphere activation than left-hemisphere activation) in subjects whose narratives contained more primary process content

  • basal = baseline, rather than short-term like in the 5 minute task

• researchers has predicted that the hemispheric asymmetry to occur during the short-term inspirational phase, in particular, but he asymmetry only showed up in basal, more stable long-term EEG measures

conclusion:

authors suggest that people who have high-level of right-hemisphere (as opposed to left-hemisphere) activation tend to think in a more “primary process” way

Carlsson, Wendt, and Risberg (2000)

Prefrontal Cortex in Creativity

had high-creativity and low-creativity subjects perform creativity tests (“uses” tests)

results:

• high-creativity people show bilateral increase in brain activity in various areas of the prefrontal cortex (compared to low-creativity subjects)

prefrontal cortex (PFC)

enables such high-level cognitive functions as the self-construct, self-reflective consciousness, willed action, planning, abstract thinking, and much more

three basic functions:

1. working memory

2. temporal integration

3. sustained and directed attention

dorsolateral PFC

higher in PFC, to the side

• left function: semantic memory retrieval

• right function: sustained attention

• general connection: heavily connected with temporal, occipital and parietal regions of the cortex

• involved in deliberate creativity (Dietrich 2004)

ventromedial PFC

lower, to the middle

• general connections: heavily connected to limbic system (amygdala and cingulate cortex)

Dietrich (2004)

Prefrontal Cortex in Creativity

• dorsolateral PFC is important for deliberate creativity

  • deliberate creativity involves effortful, constructive problem solving and depends on ability to deliberately direct attention to relevant information and access information from semantic memory

• spontaneous creativity primarily due to activation in temporal, occipital, parietal in absence of directed attention, searching, and accessing memories

• deliberate creative thinking seems to be vitally dependent on PFC’s network involved in focusing attention and on consciousness and ability to hold relevant content (working memory!) long enough for a creative solution to occur

deliberate creativity

studied in Dietrich (2004)

• involves deliberately focusing attention on problem and putting effort into coming up with a creative solution

• dorsolateral PFC

spontaneous creativity

studied in Dietrich (2004)

• occurs during periods of de-focused attention (i.e. insight)

• temporal, occipital, parietal

ventromedial PFC

Prefrontal Cortex, Creativity, and Social Judgment of Appropriateness

deficits associated with lesions in this areaL

• inappropriate social behaviors, lack of moral judgment

• lowered social inhibitions, showing little concern for self/others

• showing little regard for social restraints

Q: creative people are often described as eccentric, nonconformist, radical, socially inappropriate often, etc….might damage to this area be beneficial to creativity…?

A: NO

unconventional tendencies of creative people tend to be intentional and controllable. They know what they’re doing when they’re being unconventional—they are aware of social convention, they aren’t that concerned with it

= creativity doesnt lack judgment, it actually requires it

cerebellum

might make significant contributions to creativity

involved in general timing and sequencing, not just with motor processes, but with cognitive processes as well (including those of working memory)

Ito (1997)

The Cerebellum and Creativity

• explained how cerebellum manipulates ideas in similar way to how it manipulates motor control'

• ideas/concepts are manipulated just like limbs are in movement (ex: mentally arranging furniture is similar to actually controlling limbs to accomplish same thing)

  • when we repeatedly perform mental manipulations — just like with physical actions, the cerebellum works to make those manipulations smoother, faster, and more efficient

cerebellum and PFC

• researchers believe that the cerebellum would be useful in processing novel situation requiring creative/innovative solutions

  • in processing a novel situation, a person may need to engage in preliminary processing before taking action (processing potential consequences), which activates working memory in PFC

  • via numerous parallel connections with cerebellum, this information in working memory can be processed very rapidly and a quick decision could be made

Flaherty (2005)

Emotions and Creative Drive

proposed a model of creativity focusing on the interaction of:

1. frontal lobes

2. temporal lobes

3. limbic system

proposed link between creative drive and hypergraphia and mania

• suggests that alterations in functions of amygdala may cause the passionate interests in manic patients

• high “goal-directness” of creative arousal may be driven by the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway

  • “reward pathway” — involved in all kinds of reward seeking activity (ex gambling, cocaine addiction, appreciation of beauty, etc.)

= emotions play a role in creative drive, particularly the limbic system (especially the amygdala and mesolimbic pathway

hypergraphia

• compulsive drive to write

• associated with decrease in temporal lobe activity (most commonly, a lesion to the right temporal lobe)

  • temporal lobe regulated creative drive

• the equilibrium between right and left temporal lobes is disrupted, causing disinhibition of left-hemisphere language-related activity

• drive ≠ skill

disinhibition

weakening of restraint against performing actions

symptoms are similar to mania—most hypergraphics have mania, which is associated with increased creativity

temporal lobes seem to be involved in creative drive (or suppression!)

darwinian model

along with practice effect, is a way that creative drive can help increase creative skill/ability

• if someone is driven to produce more ideas or creative works, more novel, original, or useful ideas will be created

• subjects who come up with the best ideas will usually be subjects who are most driven … creative skill is less important

evidence:

• Threshold Theory

  • for people who are above the IQ threshold for creativity, creativity is more dependent on the brain’s motivational systems than on the person’s creative “skill”

bipolar disorder

The Limbic System and Creative Drive

• psychological disorder most associated with creativity

• patients typically show increase in creativity with manic phase

  • associated with enlargement of amygdala (emotional center of the brain)

Snyder et al (2003)

Manipulations of the Human Brain

• used TMS to simulate temporary lesions of left fronto-temporal lobe

• fronto-temporal implicated in savant syndrome in young artistic savants and savants who emerge late in life due to front-termporal lobe dementia

• eleven subjects given drawing and proofreading tasks performed before, during, and after TMS

Snyder et al (2003) results

drawing results:

• 4/11 subjects showed stylistic changes in their drawings

• judges described post-TMS drawings as more lifelike, flamboyant, and complex than before

• three subjects also reported altered states of perception — feeling more alert and conscious of detail

• subjects’ drawings did not revert back to original pre-TMS style after 45 minutes = altered perceptual state persisted

proofreading results

• savants often described as atypically LITERAL — tend to concentrate on parts than on whole, allowing them to see world in a less-biased light

  • = better proofreaders

• subjects looked for grammatical errors in short proverbs

• two subjects also showed improvement in proofreading after TMS

• TMS caused impairment at left front-temporal lobe leading to savant-like ability to see details of the PARTS and not be fooled by what they expected to see

  • explanation:

    • in normal brain, the conceptual networks concerned with meaning tend to inhibit networks concerned with detail

    • by inhibiting these networks, it may facilitate

more evidence of role of temporal lobe in creativity—impeding the activity of temporal lobes can change level of detail we are conscious of, leading to increase of certain creative abilities

Norlander & Gustafson (1998)

Altered States and Brain Function

investigated effects of alcohol on divergent thinking

subjects given “uses” task under one of three conditions:

• control (no alcohol)

• alcohol-influenced (.08 blood-alcohol level)

• placebo

results

• increased originality scores in alcohol group

• decreased flexibility in alcohol group

• no significant effect in fluency

• no effect on creativity by lower alcohol levels (.05 BAC)

conclusion:

under moderate doses of alcohol, people have slightly more original ideas, but are less flexible, not shifting their thinking as much when they are sober

West (1983)

Altered States and Brain Function

• effect of marijuana on creativity

• subjects wrote stories after looking at picture from Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

• subjects wrote a story first without being under the influence, then wrote story with marijuana or placebo

• stories analyzed with Regressive Imagery Dictionary (for primary process content)

  • ID words and phrases indicative of primary process thinking

results

• marijuana group wrote stories with higher primary process content than control subjects, and individuals more primary process content when under the influence of marijuana than when not

Bourassa and Vaugeois (2001)

Altered States and Brain Function

• compared creativity effects of marijuana on regular (3x/week) vs novice (never) users

results (contradict West 1983

• novices: no effect on divergent thinking

• regular users: decreased divergent thinking

Weckowitz et al (1975)

investigated dosage of marijuana

• low doses = enhanced creativity

• higher doses = inhibited creativity

overall, effects may differ from person-to-person, and task-to-task

Nichols (1978)

Genetics and Creativity

• reviewed 10 twin studies of divergent thinking

• average correlation of divergent thinking scores for identical twins = .61

• average correlation of divergent thinking scores for fraternal twins = .51

all together, about 22% of variation in divergent thinking scores due to influence of genes

Weller et al (1993)

Genetics and Creativity

• evaluated data from 45 pairs of MZ twins reared apart, one set of identical triplets reared apart, and 32 pairs of DZ reared apart

• subjects completed 30-item Creative Personality Scale

Results:

• correlation for MZ twins = .54

• correlation for DZ twins = -.06

conclusion:

• higher-order traits that emerge from interaction among a cluster of more fundamental traits

• not likely to run in family ; unlikely for relatives to share (or even a large percentage of) the necessary components of the trait cluster

  • creativity is highly influenced by genes, but tends not to run in families

affect

experience/feeling of emotion

Andreasen (1997)

Affective Disorders

• investigated 30 creative writers (university faculty)

• gave structured interviews to see patterns of creativity and determine history of mental illness

  • compared to control group matched for age, sex, educational level, but having varied occupations (lawyers, social workers, etc)

Andreasen (1997) results

Affective Disorders

strikingly high incidence of affective disorders in sample of writers

Ludwig (1995)

Creativity & Mental Illness Link

“The Price of Greatness”

investigated creativity/mental illness link (over 1000 eminent subjects)

Ludwig (1995) results

Depression highest in poets (77%), fiction writers (59%), artists (50%), non-fiction writers (47%), and composers (46%) … all artistic types

• artistic types (architecture, theater, art, music, writers/poets): 50% had depression

• social types (sports, social activism, social figure, companion): 27%

• investigative types (natural/social sciences): 24%

• enterprising types (business, exploration, military, public office): 20%

mania highest in actors (17%), poets (13%), architects (13%), and nonfiction writers (11%)

• artistic types: 10% mania

• investigative types: 0% mania

physical energy and creativity

connections between affective disorders and creativity

• when a person is depressed they have little energy

  • in manic episodes, the person has a lot of energy and is often highly productiv

mood swing effects on creativity

• a writer with bipolar disorder may write a LOT in manic phase, but in depressed phase may be unhappy with what they’ve written, scrap a lot from manic phase

• it may take a long time to finish a book, but they may need up with something good since they are acting as their own editor during depression

creativity as catharsis for depression

• keeping busy with creative efforts may offer an “escape” from depressed feelings

immersion in work and depression

focusing one’s life on their creative work may lead them to be consumed always, leaving little time for anything else

= possible depression

Hirt (1999)

General Effect of Mood on Creativity

review of studies on research and creativity

findings

• people in positive mood states consistently show higher creativity than people in other mood states, regardless of method of inducing positive mood and particular type of creative task

mood and creativity

Repost Associates Test, Insight Problems, and word association tasks show that…

• neutral mood = more obvious associations

  • positive mood = more creative associations

over inclusive thought

How might positive mood increase creativity?

excessive activation of semantic memory, activating even weakly-associated ideas

effects:

loosens conceptual boundaries, leading to inclusion of things in categories that other people probably wouldn’t

• ex: including horse, elevator, etc. when naming vehicles

also includes original word associations, broader range of options, increase in ideational associations

Kaufmann and Vosburg (1997)

Might Positive Mood Impair Creativity

• subjects solved two insight problems (two-string problem/hat rack problem)

• subjects categorized by mood (positive, negative, neutral)

results

• positive mood did NOT enhance subjects’ ability to solve problems

• positive-mood subjects were outperformed by negative/neutral-mood subjects

= positive mood detrimental in constrained solution requirements (where many idea options have been exhausted)

Kaufman and Vosburg (2002)

Might Positive Mood Impair Creativity?

• subjects induced into positive, negative ,or neutral mood

• subjects performed 4 divergent thinking tasks and performance recorded across 4-minute interval

results (depends on how long working on a. problem)

• positive mood led to more ideas early on

• after having produced a number of ideas, negative and neutral moods seemed to do better

= positive mood beneficial in unconstrained solution requirements (when most idea options are still available)

Nicol and Long (1996)

Stress: Creativity as a Coping Mechanism

• investigated music hobbyists and music therapists

  • collected scored on various creative thinking measures and recorded subject stress level with perceived stress scale (measured degree to which person’s life situations in past month are perceived as stressful

Nicol and Long (1996) results

hobbyists: significant correlation between high creativity and low levels of stress

therapists: no difference in stress levels between high- and low-creativity thinkers

conclusion

• the two groups might have different coping resources available

  • music therapists have training in psychology that may expose them to a broader range of coping strategies

  • music hobbyists may depend more on stress relief of creative endeavors since they have fewer coping resources to draw from

stressful events

not the event themselves that affect one’s mental health, but how they perceive, experience, and cope with the events

• diff personality traits more/less susceptible to different interpretation of events

  • one of the traits associated with creative individuals is sensitivity, and this may lead creative people to be more prone to stressful interpretations of events

• no real environmental stressors, only potential stressors

• whether they cause stress depends on the person’s interpretation of the events

Ludwig (1995)

alcoholism and drug abuse

60% of people in theater likely had alcoholism

• fiction writers: 41%

• musicians: 40%

• low…military, natural sciences, social sciences, social activism: under 10%

36% of musicians engaged in drug abuse

• theater: 25%

• fiction writers: 19%

• poetry writers: 17%

  • rare/absent…explorers, sports, military

Norlander and Gustafson (1996-1998)

• investigated effect of alcohol consumption on different phases of creative process

• subjects divided into alcohol, placebo, and control groups

incubation phase

wednesday:

• subjects asked to plan an experiment to investigate relative importance of heredity and environment

• immediately gave possible ideas and anything coming to mind about the task

• subject given pocket-sized notebook with pen attached and told to think about this problem for next 2 days, writing down every idea that came to them

• alcohol/placebo group: given 2 bottles of liquid (alcohol or placebo) to drink on Wednesday night and Thursday night just before bed

friday

• subject describes experiment plan and researchers collect their notebooks

  • panel of judges rate scientific value/creativity of ideas in journal, counting the frequency of times they wrote ideas that were modifications of previous ideas measure of incubation

Norlander and Gustafson (1996-1998) results

• alcohol group produced more frequent/original incubations than other groups

• on Thursday/F mornings, they were more likely to write down incubations that occurred while sleeping or really in the morning (likely still under the influence)

= alcohol is related to improved incubation

Norlander and Gustafson (1997)

alcohol and verification

• subjects created basic sketch based on poem they read

• drank alcohol (or not), given chance to finalize sketch with details, colors, etc. (verification stage)

• panel of judges rated handicraft at finishing up the sketches

results

• alcohol = poor verification (but enhanced incubation)

• compare to Norlander and Gustafson 1998, where alcohol is related to…

  • increased originality

  • decreased flexibility

  • UNRELATED to fluency

Eysenck (2003)

psychosis and psychoticism

• people high in psychoticism will exhibit some qualities commonly found in psychotics and may be more susceptible to becoming psychotic in certain environments

• related to psychoticism: over inclusive thought

  • can lead to psychosis, but person will often have benefits of over inclusive thoughts without the psychosis

  • a person high in psychoticism will have a tendency toward over inclusive thought, but not necessarily to the degree that they are considered psychotic

psychoticism

personality dimension related to…

• risk-taking / recklessness / impulsiveness

• disregard for common sense

• non-conformist behavior

• inappropriate emotional expression

Eysenck

believed that…

• creative people and psychotic people score high in psychoticism

  • does NOT mean that psychosis produces creativity, or that creative people are psychotic

• main ideas

  • high psychoticism is necessary for creativity

  • people high in psychoticism may develop psychosis during their lives

psychotics have original thinking, but so original that it is unrealistic and therefore NOT creative thought

there may be genetic basis for psychoticism, since high levels of creativity have been found in descendants of psychotic parents