This study examined the relationship between brain structure and creativity by administering creativity and intelligence tests to 61 subjects and analyzing the results alongside MRI brain scans. The study found that higher creative achievement scores were associated with lower left lateral orbitofrontal volume and higher right angular gyrus cortical thickness. Lower divergent thinking scores correlated with regions in the occipital lobe and higher scores correlated with the right posterior cingulate cortex. This is the first study to link measures of creativity to brain cortical thickness measurements.
2. Recent efforts have focused on cognitive processes likely to be important to the manifestation of novelty and usefulness within a given social context. The distribution of brain regions, associated with both divergent thinking( 使用 :CCI 綜合創造性指標 ) and creative achievement( 使用 :CAQ 創意成就問卷 ), suggests that cognitive control of information flow among brain areas may be critical to understanding creative cognition.
3. 枕葉舌迴內的區域和 CCI 有負相關; 右後扣帶腦皮質和 CCI 有正相關。 對 CAQ 來說, 較低的左前額區腦底部體積與較高的創造性成就有關; 在右大腦角迴有較高的大腦皮質厚度與較高的 CAQ 得分有關。 這是第一個把大腦皮質厚度測量與創造力的心理量測連結起來的第一個研究。
9. [INTRODUCTION] Like intelligence, academic discussions over definitions of this construct extend over decades and involve considerations of the creative person, the cognitive process underlying creativity, the creative environment or influence, and the creative product (Batey and Furnham, 2006). A main challenge is to avoid the many facile simplifications that often arise when discussing such a complex cognitive construct (Dietrich, 2007).
10. [INTRODUCTION] There likely exist myriad cognitive skills necessary to produce something both ‘‘novel and useful.’’ In laboratory settings, the assessment of subject engagement in creative tasks is made mostly by tests of divergent thinking (DT), the process by which one extrapolates many possible answers to an initial stimulus or target data set (Guilford, 1967).
11. [INTRODUCTION] Neurological inquiries regarding creativity have tended to focus on whether the frontal lobes ( 額葉 ) are engaged or whether more posterior brain regions 後扣帶 腦皮質區 (Heilman et al., 2003) or subcortical structures ( 皮質下的結構 )such as the basal ganglia are more predominant (Dietrich, 2004). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Such efforts are based largely on data gleaned from neurological and psychiatric patients (Pollack et al., 2007).
12. [Early EEG studies ] Early EEG studies demonstrated that highly creative individuals differed from normal controls in : greater activity within right parieto temporal areas( 顳葉區與活力 ), higher alpha activity during analogs of ‘‘inspiration,’’ ( α 波與靈感 ) greater tendency to present physiological over-response( 生理回應與傾向 ). (Martindale and Greenough, 1973; Martindale and Hasenfus, 1978; Martindale and Hines, 1975).
13. [The newest phase of EEG studies of creativity] One research group has contributed much to the newest phase of EEG studies of creativity, with initial studies showing lower levels of cortical arousal during creative problem solving, and stronger alpha synchronization in centroparietal cortices associated with more original responses (Fink and Neubauer, 2006 ). ( 在創造性問題解決過程中,大腦皮質興奮水平較低,有較強的 α 波同步 ) This same group found the creativity– alpha power relationship to be mediated by the personality characteristic of Introversion–Extraversion 內外向性格 (Fink and Neubauer, 2008). 還有相當大的異質性研究的結果,在腦電圖的創意認知上, 使其難以對於 α 活性與側半球皮質的影響或方向得出結論。
14. 腦部研究的工具,包括 EEG 、 MRI 、 PET 、還有最新的 FMRI ,都可以深入地研究,以針對創造力這個領域有更進ㄧ步的了解。 For example, a wealth of research exists from the psychometric literature ( 心理測量 ) linking creativity to intelligence and personality variables (Batey and Furnham, 2006), Yet these measures are rarely included in modern neuroimaging studies to assess the discriminant validity of the creativity measure of interest (e.g., DT). All studies have relatively small samples limiting statistical power.
15. The current report attempts to address some of these shortcomings by: administration of psychometrically valid measures of intelligence, personality, and creativity (i.e., DT, creative achievement) to a large cohort of healthy subjects, undertaking the first structural magnetic resonance imaging study linking constructs central to creativity to cortical thickness, ( 磁共振成像與腦皮質厚度 ) linking our results to previous studies across the neuroscientific, behavioral neurology, and psychometric literatures.( 聯繫我們以往的研究成果於整個神經科學,行為神經學,心理量測。 )
16. Based on these findings we hypothesized that : a priori, cortical thickness in the cingulate gyrus would be associated with increased creativity as measured by DT ( 腦皮質層厚度在扣帶迴會帶來更多的創造力 ) in exploratory tests across the entire cortical mantle, less thickness would be associated with increased creativity as measured by DT. ( 腦皮質層厚度不足將帶來更多的創造力 )
17. METHODS Sample Sixty-five subjects were recruited for the present study. Four subjects were not included in the analysis due to missing behavioral data, leaving a final sample of sixty one. Fifty-six of these sixty-one subjects were reported on previously in research linking DT to NAA (Jung et al., 2009). Subjects were young adults (23.7 ! 4.2 years), well matched by sex (33 males, 28 females), and the two sexes did not differ significantly on Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient 智力商數 (FSIQ) from the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence 韋氏智力量表 (males ? 118.12 ! 10.78; females ? 117.14 ! 8.41). They were recruited by postings in various departments and classrooms around the University of New Mexico.
18. Behavioral Measures (CAQ 、 DT: CCI & WASI) All subjects completed the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ), a reliable and valid measure of creative productivity across ten domains including visual arts, music, creative writing, dance, drama, architecture, humor, scientific discovery, invention, and culinary arts (Carson et al., 2005). 創造性的生產力跨越 10 個領域包括視覺藝術,音樂,創意寫作,舞蹈,戲劇,建築,幽默,科學發現,發明,和烹飪藝術。 Three DT tasks were administered: Free Condition of the Design Fluency Test (DFT), Four Line Condition of the DFT, and Uses of Objects Test (UOT) (Lezak et al., 2004). Participants were also administered the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The WASI consists of four subtests: Vocabulary, Similarities, Block Design, and Matrix Reasoning (Wechsler, 1999).
19. Image Acquisition and Processing ( 圖像採集與處理 ) Free- Surfer image analysis suite The methodology for FreeSurfer is described in full in several papers (Dale et al., 1999; Dale and Sereno, 1993; Desikan et al., 2006; Fischl and Dale, 2000; Fischl et al., 1999a,b, 2001, 2002, 2004a,b; Segonne et al., 2007). 哈佛與史丹佛大學共同研發之軟體。
20. METHODS Statistical Analysis To investigate the correlation between cortical thickness measurements and creativity scores, we performed a surfacebased group analysis using tools within FreeSurfer.
21. RESULTS Statistical Analysis Finally, the CCI and CAQ were weakly correlated (r ? 0.26, P ? 0.05). We found several discrete clusters at P < 0.01 that had a negative correlation with CCI and cortical thickness, which indicated decreased cortical thickness in relation to higher CCI scores (Fig. 1a–c and Table I).
24. DISCUSSION we found an interplay of increased gray matter thickness related to both CCI and CAQ performance within the right posterior cingulate gyrus and right angular gyrus, 這是第一個腦皮層層厚度與創造力心理測量的鍊結研究。 測量 DT(CCI) 和創造性成就 (CAQ) 。我們發現了在一個網絡中腦皮層厚度增加會與創造力減少有關。 我們在右後扣帶迴和右側角迴,找到了一個相互作用的灰質厚度增加與 CCI 有關。
25. These regions all survived Monte-Carlo simulations 蒙地卡羅模擬與評估出現的機會 to assess whether they could have arisen by chance; therefore, subsequent discussions can be undertaken with some level of certainty, given that this is the first study to link cortical thickness measures to psychometric measures of creativity in a normal healthy cohort.
27. In applying this viewpoint to our cortical thickness results, a possible interpretation of our findings is that the generation of novel, original ideas ( 原創構想 )is associated with less cortical thickness within frontal( 額葉 ) and (certain) posterior cortical regions ( 後皮質層 ), requiring higher functional activation to initiate cognitive control.( 需要較高的功能活化以啟動認知控制 )
28. However, the psychometric strength of such measures cannot hide the fact that subjects are not being creative in the laboratory, only simulating cognitive proxies for creativity and self-reporting their creative success out in the world. 然而,這些測量有無法掩蓋的事實,所測對象都是在沒有創造性的實驗室,只是孤絕於世外,模擬創造力的認知代理的和自我報告他們的創造性成就。 [see Sternberg (1999; p. 7) for discussion].