Beaty Roger E, Christensen Alexander P, Benedek Mathias, Silvia Paul J, Schacter Daniel L
Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA.
Neuroimage. 2017 Mar 1;148:189-196. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.01.012. Epub 2017 Jan 8.
Functional neuroimaging research has recently revealed brain network interactions during performance on creative thinking tasks-particularly among regions of the default and executive control networks-but the cognitive mechanisms related to these interactions remain poorly understood. Here we test the hypothesis that the executive control network can interact with the default network to inhibit salient conceptual knowledge (i.e., pre-potent responses) elicited from memory during creative idea production. Participants studied common noun-verb pairs and were given a cued-recall test with corrective feedback to strengthen the paired association in memory. They then completed a verb generation task that presented either a previously studied noun (high-constraint) or an unstudied noun (low-constraint), and were asked to "think creatively" while searching for a novel verb to relate to the presented noun. Latent Semantic Analysis of verbal responses showed decreased semantic distance values in the high-constraint (i.e., interference) condition, which corresponded to increased neural activity within regions of the default (posterior cingulate cortex and bilateral angular gyri), salience (right anterior insula), and executive control (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) networks. Independent component analysis of intrinsic functional connectivity networks extended this finding by revealing differential interactions among these large-scale networks across the task conditions. The results suggest that interactions between the default and executive control networks underlie response inhibition during constrained idea production, providing insight into specific neurocognitive mechanisms supporting creative cognition.
功能神经影像学研究最近揭示了在创造性思维任务执行过程中的大脑网络交互作用——尤其是在默认网络和执行控制网络的区域之间——但与这些交互作用相关的认知机制仍知之甚少。在这里，我们检验了一个假设，即执行控制网络可以与默认网络相互作用，以抑制在创造性想法产生过程中从记忆中引发的显著概念性知识（即优势反应）。参与者学习了常见的名词 - 动词对，并进行了带有纠正反馈的线索回忆测试，以加强记忆中的配对关联。然后，他们完成了一个动词生成任务，该任务呈现了一个之前学习过的名词（高约束条件）或一个未学习过的名词（低约束条件），并要求他们在寻找与呈现的名词相关的新颖动词时“创造性地思考”。对言语反应的潜在语义分析表明，在高约束（即干扰）条件下语义距离值降低，这与默认网络（后扣带回皮质和双侧角回）、突显网络（右前脑岛）和执行控制网络（左背外侧前额叶皮质）区域内神经活动的增加相对应。对内在功能连接网络的独立成分分析扩展了这一发现，揭示了跨任务条件下这些大规模网络之间的差异交互作用。结果表明，默认网络和执行控制网络之间的交互作用是受限想法产生过程中反应抑制的基础，为支持创造性认知的特定神经认知机制提供了见解。
