Shen Wangbing, Tong Yu, Li Feng, Yuan Yuan, Hommel Bernhard, Liu Chang, Luo Jing
School of Public Administration, Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, China; Cognitive Psychology Unit & Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Jilin Normal University, Siping, China.
Biol Psychol. 2018 Oct;138:189-198. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.08.018. Epub 2018 Aug 28.
The nature of insight has been the interdisciplinary focus of scientific inquiry for over 100 years. Behavioral studies and biographical data suggest that insight, as a form of creative cognition, consists of at least four separate but intercorrelated stages as described by Wallas (1926). Yet no quantitative evidence was available for insight- or insight-stage-specific brain mechanisms that generalize across various insight tasks. The present work attempted, for one, to present an integrated and comprehensive description of the neural networks underlying insight and, for another, to identify dynamic brain mechanisms related to the four hypothetical stages of insight. To this end, we performed two quantitative meta-analyses: one for all available studies that used neuroimaging techniques to investigate insight, and the other for the phasic brain activation of insight drawn from task characteristics, using the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach. One key finding was evidence of an integrated network of insight-activated regions, including the right medial frontal gyrus, the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left amygdala and the right hippocampus. Importantly, various brain areas were variably recruited during the four stages. Based on the ALE results, the general and stage-specific neural correlates of insight were determined and potential implications are discussed.
100多年来，洞察力的本质一直是跨学科科学探究的焦点。行为研究和传记资料表明，作为一种创造性认知形式，洞察力至少由沃拉斯（1926年）所描述的四个独立但相互关联的阶段组成。然而，对于跨各种洞察力任务的、特定于洞察力或洞察力阶段的大脑机制，尚无定量证据。本研究一方面试图对洞察力背后的神经网络进行综合全面的描述，另一方面试图识别与洞察力的四个假设阶段相关的动态大脑机制。为此，我们进行了两项定量荟萃分析：一项针对所有使用神经成像技术研究洞察力的现有研究，另一项使用激活可能性估计（ALE）方法，针对从任务特征中提取的洞察力的阶段性大脑激活进行分析。一个关键发现是有证据表明存在一个洞察力激活区域的整合网络，包括右侧额内侧回、左侧额下回、左侧杏仁核和右侧海马体。重要的是，在四个阶段中，不同的脑区被不同程度地激活。基于ALE结果，确定了洞察力的一般和特定阶段的神经关联，并讨论了潜在的意义。
