Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA; Department of Psychology, UCLA College of Letters and Science, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2018 Sep;118(Pt A):59-67. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.02.017. Epub 2018 Feb 15.
The cognitive and physiological processes underlying creativity remain unclear, and very few studies to date have attempted to identify the behavioral and brain characteristics that distinguish exceptional ("Big-C") from everyday ("little-c") creativity. The Big-C Project examined functional brain responses during tasks demanding divergent and convergent thinking in 35 Big-C Visual Artists (VIS), 41 Big-C Scientists (SCI), and 31 individuals in a "smart comparison group" (SCG) matched to the Big-C groups on parental educational attainment and estimated IQ. Functional MRI (fMRI) scans included two activation paradigms widely used in prior creativity research, the Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and Remote Associates Task (RAT), to assess brain function during divergent and convergent thinking, respectively. Task performance did not differ between groups. Functional MRI activation in Big-C and SCG groups differed during the divergent thinking task. No differences in activation were seen during the convergent thinking task. Big-C groups had less activation than SCG in frontal pole, right frontal operculum, left middle frontal gyrus, and bilaterally in occipital cortex. SCI displayed lower frontal and parietal activation relative to the SCG when generating alternate uses in the AUT, while VIS displayed lower frontal activation than SCI and SCG when generating typical qualities (the control condition in the AUT). VIS showed more activation in right inferior frontal gyrus and left supramarginal gyrus relative to SCI. All groups displayed considerable overlapping activation during the RAT. The results confirm substantial overlap in functional activation across groups, but suggest that exceptionally creative individuals may depend less on task-positive networks during tasks that demand divergent thinking.
创造力的认知和生理过程仍不清楚，迄今为止，很少有研究试图确定区分特殊（“大 C”）和日常（“小 c”）创造力的行为和大脑特征。Big-C 项目在 35 位大 C 视觉艺术家 (VIS)、41 位大 C 科学家 (SCI) 和 31 位与大 C 组在父母教育程度和估计 IQ 上相匹配的“聪明对照组”(SCG)成员中，检查了发散思维和聚合思维任务中的大脑功能反应。功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 扫描包括两种在之前的创造力研究中广泛使用的激活范式，交替用途任务 (AUT) 和远程联想任务 (RAT)，分别评估发散思维和聚合思维期间的大脑功能。组间任务表现无差异。在发散思维任务中，大 C 和 SCG 组的功能磁共振成像激活存在差异。在聚合思维任务中没有观察到激活差异。大 C 组在前额极、右侧额下盖、左侧额中回和双侧枕叶皮质的激活低于 SCG 组。在 AUT 中生成替代用途时，SCI 相对于 SCG 的额叶和顶叶激活较低，而 VIS 相对于 SCI 和 SCG 的额叶激活较低，而生成典型特征（AUT 中的对照条件）。与 SCI 和 SCG 相比，VIS 显示出右侧额下回和左侧缘上回的更多激活。所有组在 RAT 中都显示出相当大的重叠激活。结果证实了不同组之间的功能激活有很大的重叠，但表明在需要发散思维的任务中，非常有创造力的个体可能较少依赖任务正性网络。
