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. 2014 Mar;88(100):125-33.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.11.021. Epub 2013 Nov 21.

To create or to recall? Neural mechanisms underlying the generation of creative new ideas

Mathias Benedek  1 , Emanuel Jauk  2 , Andreas Fink  2 , Karl Koschutnig  2 , Gernot Reishofer  3 , Franz Ebner  3 , Aljoscha C Neubauer  2
Affiliations

To create or to recall? Neural mechanisms underlying the generation of creative new ideas

Mathias Benedek et al. Neuroimage. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

This fMRI study investigated brain activation during creative idea generation using a novel approach allowing spontaneous self-paced generation and expression of ideas. Specifically, we addressed the fundamental question of what brain processes are relevant for the generation of genuinely new creative ideas, in contrast to the mere recollection of old ideas from memory. In general, creative idea generation (i.e., divergent thinking) was associated with extended activations in the left prefrontal cortex and the right medial temporal lobe, and with deactivation of the right temporoparietal junction. The generation of new ideas, as opposed to the retrieval of old ideas, was associated with stronger activation in the left inferior parietal cortex which is known to be involved in mental simulation, imagining, and future thought. Moreover, brain activation in the orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus was found to increase as a function of the creativity (i.e., originality and appropriateness) of ideas pointing to the role of executive processes for overcoming dominant but uncreative responses. We conclude that the process of idea generation can be generally understood as a state of focused internally-directed attention involving controlled semantic retrieval. Moreover, left inferior parietal cortex and left prefrontal regions may subserve the flexible integration of previous knowledge for the construction of new and creative ideas.

Keywords: Creativity; Human cognition; Inferior parietal cortex; Memory retrieval; fMRI.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic sequence of a single run. Fixation phases (20–22 s) are followed by divergent thinking phases (60 s). During divergent thinking, participants performed self-paced generation of ideas. Black boxes represent time periods in which ideas are vocalized. Idea generation epochs were modeled as time periods preceding the vocalization of ideas. Ideas were categorized as old or new after the experiment depending on whether they were retrieved from memory or newly created.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Behavioral analysis of idea generation behavior. a, Relative frequency of old and new ideas in four 15-s intervals of the divergent thinking task. b, Rated creativity of old and new ideas.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Whole brain analysis (T maps) of brain activation during divergent thinking relative to implicit baseline (OLD & NEW > 0; p < .05, FWE corrected, k ≥ 100). Axial planes are depicted at z = − 20 to 50. Divergent thinking is associated with significant activation in the left inferior gyrus (IFG), left superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left pre- and postcentral gyri, and right hippocampus (yellow colors), and with significant relative deactivations (blue colors) in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ), right precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Top: Whole brain analysis (T maps) for the contrast of new vs. old ideas (double-thresholded with p < .001 at voxel-level and p < .05 at cluster-level) including %SC in the significant cluster. The generation of new ideas was associated with stronger activation in the left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) including parts of the supramarginal gyrus (SMG).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Top: Whole brain parametric analysis (T maps) for creativity of ideas (double-thresholded with p < .001 at voxel-level and p < .05 at cluster-level). Higher creativity of ideas was related to stronger brain activation in the orbital part of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG; depicted at z = − 8) and in a cluster located in the left precentral and postcentral gyri (depicted at z = 43).
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