PSYCH 202: The Creative Brain

What is Creativity What are the 2 key componnets required for creativity

A creative idea must be

• Novel/original/surprising

• Useful, valuable, relevant

What is Creativity Why is novelty alone not sufficient for creativity

An idea can be novel but still be useless or irrelevant

What is Creativity What are the 2 major stages of creative thinking

• Idea Generation (divergent thinking)

• Idea Evaluation (convergent thinking)

What is Creativity What is divergent thinking

Generating multiple possibilities, ideas, or solutions by making new associations between them

What is Creativity What is convergen thinking

Evaluating generated ideas and selecting the most appropriate or useful one

What is Creativity Boden’s 3 types of creativity

• Combinational

• Exploratory

• Transformational

What is Creativity What is combinational creativity

Generation of unfamiliar combinations of familiar ideas

What is Creativity combinational creativity examples

Analogies, poetic imagery, and mash-ups.

What is Creativity What is exploratory creativity

Exploring an existing “conceptual space” or structure and generating novel ideas according to a set of rules/conventions

What is Creativity exploratory creativity examples

Writing sentences, sonnets, haikus, or impressionist paintings.

What is Creativity What is transformational creativity

Creating completely new conceptual space within which new ideas can be generated; may be considered bizarre

What is Creativity transformational creativity examples

New scientific theories or entirely new artistic styles.

Measuring Creativity What does the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) measure

Divergent thinking

Measuring Creativity What is the task in the AUT

Generate as many uses as possible for a common object (e.g., paperclip)

Measuring Creativity What 4 dimensions are used to score the AUT

• Fluency

• Flexibility

• Originality

• Appropriateness

Measuring Creativity What is fluency in AUT

number of ideas generated

Measuring Creativity what is flexibility in AUT

The number of different categories represented by the ideas

Measuring Creativity what is originality in AUT

How unusual or unique a response is

Measuring Creativity what is appropriateness in AUT

How useful or practical the idea is

Measuring Creativity When are the most original AUT responses typically generated

After more time has passed, once common responses have been exhausted

Measuring Creativity What does the Remote Associates Test (RAT) measure

Convergent thinking

Measuring Creativity what is the task in the RAT

Find a word that links 3 seemingly unrelated words

Measuring Creativity what cognitive process is involved in the RAT

Generating candidate solutions and eliminating the incorrect ones

Measuring Creativity Why are creativity tests such as AUT and RAT criticised

• depend heavily on language ability

• may not capture spontaneous creativity

• measure only specific aspects of creativity

Neuroimaging to study Creativity What does fMRI measure

Changes in the Blood oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal

Neuroimaging to study Creativity What does increased BOLD activity indicate

Increased neural activity in a brain region

Neuroimaging to study Creativity What do activation studies examine

Which brain regions show increased activity during a task

Neuroimaging to study Creativity What is functional connectivity

Correlated activity between brain regions over time

Neuroimaging to study Creativity What is a seed region

A starting region used to identify other regions showing correlated activity

Neuroimaging to study Creativity Why are functional connectivity analyses important

They reveal large-scale functional brain networks

Neuroimaging to study Creativity What is the Default Mode Network (DMN)

A network associated with internally directed thought such as memory, imagination, and self-reflection

Neuroimaging to study Creativity What are task-positive networks

Networks involved in externally focused attention and cognitive control

Neuroimaging to study Creativity How are the DMN and task-positive networks usually related

They are typically anticorrelated

Brain Networks involved in Creativity Why is identifying a single "creativity region" difficult?

Creativity depends on multiple cognitive processes such as attention, memory, semantic retrieval, and executive control

Brain Networks involved in Creativity How was creativity divided in the book-cover design study

• Idea generation

• Idea evaluation

Brain Networks involved in Creativity Which brain region was preferentially activated during idea generation

MTL

Brain Networks involved in Creativity Which networks were co-activated during idea evaluation

DMN and task-positive networks

Brain Networks involved in Creativity What happened to connectivity between DMN and task-positive networks during creative tasks

Connectivity increased

Brain Networks involved in Creativity What does increased activity between DMN and task-positive networks suggest about creative cognition

Creativity involves cooperation between normally opposing brain networks

Brain Networks involved in Creativity What predicts better performance on creativity tasks

Stronger connectivity between the DMN and task-positive networks

Brain Networks involved in Creativity What is the major takeaway regarding creativity

Creativity relies on interaction between internally focused and externally focused brain networks

The Role of the Hippocampus in Creativity How do hippocampal amnesiacs perform on creativity tasks

They show substantial impairments

The Role of the Hippocampus in Creativity Why is the hippocampus important for creativity

It supports the generation, combination, and recombination of mental representations

The Role of the Hippocampus in Creativity How does the hippocampus contribute to divergent thinking

By creating novel associations between existing memories and ideas

The Role of the Hippocampus in Creativity What relationship exists between creativity and future imagination

Better performance on divergent tasks (e.g. AUT) predicts better future imagination ability

The Role of the Hippocampus in Creativity How is future imagination measured

By counting episodic details generated during imagined future events

The Role of the Hippocampus in Creativity What common process may underlie both creativity and future imagination

Generating novel associations between memories and mental representations

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity Why are neuroimaging findings limited

They are correlational and cannot establish causation

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity What is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

A technique that uses magnetic pulses to alter neural activity

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity How can TMS help creativity research

It allows researchers to test causal involvement of brain regions

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity What effect does high-frequency TMS (e.g., 10Hz) generally produce

Excitatory effects

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity What effect does continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) generally produce

Inhibitory effects

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity experiment design

• Targets hippocampal function

• Participants in scanner - resting state scan, looking at fixation task

• Go home

• Analyses to find regions of cortex functionally connected to hippocampus

• --> target angular gyrus that is maximally connected to HC

• Bring back to lab

• Apply TMS to target for person

• Target location varies between individual

3 tasks

• Imagine future event task

• Unusual uses task

• Semantic tasks

Whether zapping AG target will reduce the activty during these tasks --> related to HC

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity Why couldn’t researchers directly stimulate the hippocampus

It is located too deep within the brain

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity Which brain region was stimulated instead

The angular gyrus, a cortical region strongly connected to the hippocampus

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity What happened when hippocampal function was disrupted using cTBS

Performance decreased on:

• Future imagination tasks

• Divergent thinking tasks

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity Which task was largely unaffected by hippocampal disruption

Semantic knowledge tasks

TMS Evidence for Hippocampus’ Role in Creativity What does the TMS evidence suggest

creativity and future imagination both rely on associative functions of the hippocampus to generate novel combinations of ideas/memories/mental representations etc.

• TMS = can adopt more causal language when describing these results

BOLD Variability and Creativity What is BOLD variability

Fluctuations in brain activity over time rather than average activation levels

BOLD Variability and Creativity Why might variability be beneficial

It increases the range of possible brain states available for cognition

BOLD Variability and Creativity What is meant by “dynamic range”

The amount of state-space the brain can explore

BOLD Variability and Creativity Why was increased variability hypothesised to support creativity

It might allow exploration of a wider range of mental states and ideas

BOLD Variability and Creativity Did research strongly support a relationship between BOLD variability and creativity

No. Evidence did not show a strong association.

What is the most important overall conclusion from this lecture?

Creativity is not produced by a single brain region—it emerges from interactions between memory systems (especially the hippocampus), the Default Mode Network, and task-positive control networks that together generate and evaluate novel, useful ideas.