Zhang Lei, Li Wenfu, Wei Dongtao, Yang Wenjing, Yang Ning, Qiao Lei, Qiu Jiang, Zuo Xi-Nian, Zhang Qinglin
Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, No.2, TianSheng Road, Beibei district, Chongqing, 400715, China.
Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science and MRI Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2016 Jun;10(2):332-41. doi: 10.1007/s11682-015-9396-2.
Mind pops or involuntary semantic memories refer to words, phrases, images, or melodies that suddenly pop into one's mind without any deliberate attempt to recall them. Despite their prevalence in everyday life, research on mind pops has started only recently. Notably, mind pops are very similar to clinical involuntary phenomena such as hallucinations in schizophrenia, suggesting their potential role in pathology. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between mind pops and the brain morphometry measured in 302 healthy young adults; after exclusions, 256 participants were included in our analyses. Specifically, the Mind Popping Questionnaire (MPQ) was employed to measure the degree of individual mind pops, whereas the Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) was used to compute the volumes of both gray and white matter tissues. Multiple regression analyses on MPQ and VBM metrics indicated that high-frequency mind pops were significantly associated with smaller gray matter volume in the left middle temporal gyrus as well as with larger gray and white matter volume in the right medial prefrontal cortex. This increase in mind pops is also linked to higher creativity and the personality trait of 'openness'. These data not only suggest a key role of the two regions in generating self-related thoughts, but also open a possible link between brain and creativity or personality.
脑海中突然出现的念头或非自愿语义记忆是指那些在没有任何刻意回忆的情况下突然跳入脑海的单词、短语、图像或旋律。尽管它们在日常生活中很常见，但对脑海中突然出现的念头的研究直到最近才开始。值得注意的是，脑海中突然出现的念头与临床非自愿现象非常相似，如精神分裂症中的幻觉，这表明它们在病理学中的潜在作用。本研究旨在调查302名健康年轻成年人中脑海中突然出现的念头与大脑形态测量之间的关系；排除后，256名参与者纳入我们的分析。具体而言，使用脑海中突然出现念头问卷（MPQ）来测量个体脑海中突然出现念头的程度，而基于体素的形态测量（VBM）则用于计算灰质和白质组织的体积。对MPQ和VBM指标的多元回归分析表明，高频脑海中突然出现的念头与左侧颞中回较小的灰质体积以及右侧内侧前额叶皮质较大的灰质和白质体积显著相关。脑海中突然出现念头的增加也与更高的创造力和“开放性”人格特质有关。这些数据不仅表明这两个区域在产生自我相关思想方面的关键作用，还揭示了大脑与创造力或人格之间可能的联系。
