Li Ziyi, Zhang Ze, Tan Tengteng, Luo Jing
Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China.
Neuroimage. 2025 Feb 1;306:121021. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121021. Epub 2025 Jan 11.
Although creative ideas often emerge during distraction activities unrelated to the creative task, empirical research has yet to reveal the underlying neurocognitive mechanism. Using an incubation paradigm, we temporarily disengaged participants from the initial creative ideation task and required them to conduct two different distraction activities (moderately-demanding: 1-back working memory task, non-demanding: 0-back choice reaction time task), then returned them to the previous creative task. On the process of creative ideation, we calculated the representational dissimilarities between the two creative ideation phases before and after incubation period to estimate the neural representational change underlying successful incubation. The results found that, for the 0-back condition, successful incubation was associated with the representational change in precuneus (PCU), whereas for the 1-back condition, it was associated with change in rostrolateral PFC (rlPFC), suggesting the dual processes of the DMN-mediated associative thinking and PFC-mediated controlled thinking for the 0- or the 1-back incubation conditions to prompt creation. On the incubation delay, we found the successful incubation in both conditions was accompanied with network integration between frontoparietal (FP) and default mode (DM) network, further suggesting the coupling of the controlled- and associative-thinking for the incubation to work. Moreover, we found the FP-DM integration during incubation period could respectively predict the representational change in PCU or rlPFC in the creative ideation phase of 0- or 1-back condition. This means both conditions benefits from the coordination of the controlled and of the associative thinking in incubation period, but for the representational change in creative ideation phase, 1-back condition relies more on the controlled thinking, whereas the 0-back on the associative ones. Additionally, we created a neural encoding indicator to assess the degree to which temporal activities in the rlPFC or PCU during incubation delay is related to the after-incubation successful problem-solving, and we found a positive relation between this indicator and dynamic reconfiguration of brain networks. This further indicates that FP-DM integration supports creative incubation through offline processing.
尽管创造性想法常常在与创造性任务无关的分心活动中出现，但实证研究尚未揭示其潜在的神经认知机制。我们采用酝酿范式，让参与者暂时脱离最初的创造性构思任务，要求他们进行两种不同的分心活动（中等难度：1-回溯工作记忆任务，低难度：0-回溯选择反应时任务），然后再让他们回到之前的创造性任务。在创造性构思过程中，我们计算了酝酿期前后两个创造性构思阶段之间的表征差异，以估计成功酝酿背后的神经表征变化。结果发现，对于0-回溯条件，成功酝酿与楔前叶（PCU）的表征变化相关，而对于1-回溯条件，它与额前外侧皮质（rlPFC）的变化相关，这表明在0-或1-回溯酝酿条件下，默认模式网络（DMN）介导的联想思维和前额叶皮质（PFC）介导的控制性思维的双重过程促进了创造力。在酝酿延迟方面，我们发现两种条件下的成功酝酿都伴随着额顶叶（FP）和默认模式（DM）网络之间的网络整合，进一步表明控制性思维和联想思维的耦合对酝酿起作用。此外，我们发现酝酿期的FP-DM整合可以分别预测0-或1-回溯条件下创造性构思阶段PCU或rlPFC的表征变化。这意味着两种条件都受益于酝酿期控制性思维和联想思维的协调，但对于创造性构思阶段的表征变化，1-回溯条件更多地依赖控制性思维，而0-回溯条件则更多地依赖联想思维。此外，我们创建了一个神经编码指标来评估酝酿延迟期间rlPFC或PCU的时间活动与酝酿后成功解决问题的相关程度，我们发现该指标与脑网络的动态重构之间存在正相关。这进一步表明FP-DM整合通过离线处理支持创造性酝酿。
