Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College.
Anderson School of Management, University of California-Los Angeles.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2019 Apr;116(4):483-494. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000148. Epub 2019 Feb 4.
Human imagination is bounded. As situations become more distant in time, place, perspective, and likelihood, they also become more difficult to simulate. What underlies the ability to successfully engage in distal simulations? Here we examine the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying distal simulation by studying individuals known for transcending these limits: creative experts. First, 2 behavioral studies establish that creative experts indeed succeed at engaging in vivid distal simulations, compared to less creative individuals. Performance on a traditional measure of creativity (Study 1) and real-world success in creative pursuits (Study 2) corresponded with more vivid distal simulations across temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical domains. Study 3 used neuroimaging to identify the neural mechanism supporting creative experts' simulation success. Whereas creative experts and controls recruit the same neural mechanism (the medial prefrontal cortex) while simulating common or proximal events, creative experts preferentially engage a distinct neural mechanism (the dorsomedial subsystem of the default network) while simulating distal events. Moreover, creative experts showed greater functional connectivity within this network at rest, suggesting they may be prepared to engage this mechanism, by default. Studying creative expertise provides new insight into the ability to mentally transcend the here and now. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
人类的想象力是有限的。随着时间、地点、视角和可能性变得越来越遥远，它们也变得越来越难以模拟。成功进行远距离模拟的能力基础是什么？在这里，我们通过研究那些超越这些限制的创造性专家，来研究远距离模拟背后的心理和神经机制。首先，两项行为研究表明，与创造力较低的个体相比，创造性专家确实能够成功地进行生动的远距离模拟。在传统的创造力衡量标准上的表现（研究 1）和在现实世界的创造性追求中的成功（研究 2）与在时间、空间、社会和假设领域更生动的远距离模拟相对应。研究 3 使用神经影像学来确定支持创造性专家模拟成功的神经机制。当创造性专家和对照组模拟常见或近端事件时，他们会利用相同的神经机制（内侧前额叶皮层），但创造性专家会优先利用不同的神经机制（默认网络的背内侧子系统）来模拟远距离事件。此外，创造性专家在休息时表现出更大的网络内功能连接，这表明他们可能默认准备利用这种机制。研究创造性专长为我们提供了一种新的视角，了解人们如何在心理上超越此时此地。（PsycINFO 数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。
