Flexible reconfiguration of functional brain networks as a potential neural mechanism of creativity
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Flexible reconfiguration of functional brain networks as a potential neural mechanism of creativity Junchao Li 1 & Natasza Orlov 2,3,4,5 & Zengjian Wang 1 & Bingqing Jiao 1 & Yibo Wang 1 & Huawei Xu 1 & Hui Yang 1 & Yingying Huang 1 & Yan Sun 1 & Peng Zhang 1 & Rengui Yu 1 & Ming Liu 1 & Delong Zhang 1 Accepted: 31 August 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Creativity relies on the reorganizing of multimodal information and flexible switching between different modes of thinking, suggesting an association between creativity and the reconfiguration of functional brain networks. Here, we investigated global and regional brain dynamics in high-creative (HCG, N = 22) and a low-creative (LCG, N = 20) groups during a divergent creative thinking task. We found that during the creative thinking task, the HCG demonstrated higher global network flexibility, as compared to the LCG. In addition, creative thinking in the HCG was associated with significantly higher regional flexibility in the medial superior temporal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, precuneus, nucleus accumbens, and the ventral inferior frontal gyrus. Interestingly, the LCG demonstrated decreased regional flexibility in the medial superior temporal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and the ventral inferior frontal gyrus. We also found that the changes in global and regional flexibility in the creative compared with the control tasks were good features allowing for distinguishing between the HCG and the LCG. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that divergent creative thinking is associated with flexible reconfiguration of brain networks involved in verbal, working memory, and reward processing. Keywords Alternative uses test . Creativity . Divergent thinking . Dynamic functional connectivity . Flexibility
Highlights • We employed a dynamic module detection algorithm to investigate the distinct changes in the reconfiguration flexibility of functional brain networks during the creative task in high-creative and low-creative individuals. • Compared to the low-creative group, the high-creative group demonstrated a significantly higher global and regional flexibility during the creative task. • When comparing the creative versus the control task, the high-creative group demonstrated significant increases in regional flexibility, while the low-creative group demonstrated significant decreases in regional flexibility. • The changes in global and regional flexibility between the creative and control tasks are good features allowing distinguishing between the highcreative and low-creative groups. * Ming Liu [email protected]
2
Cognition Schizophrenia Imaging Lab, Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK
* Delong Zhang [email protected]
3
Department of Psychology, University of Roehampton, London, UK
4
Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
5
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical
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