Rastelli Clara, Greco Antonino, Finocchiaro Chiara, Penazzi Gabriele, Braun Christoph, De Pisapia Nicola
Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
MEG Center, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Commun Biol. 2025 Mar 28;8(1):513. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-07913-3.
Storytelling has been pivotal for the transmission of knowledge across human history, yet the role of semantic control and its associated neural dynamics has been poorly investigated. Here, human participants generated stories that were either appropriate (ordinary), novel (random), or balanced (creative), while recording functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Deep language models confirmed participants adherence to task instructions. At the neural level, linguistic and visual areas exhibited neural synchrony across participants regardless of the semantic control level, with parietal and frontal regions being more synchronized during random ideation. Importantly, creative stories were differentiated by a multivariate pattern of neural activity in frontal and fronto-temporo-parietal cortices compared to ordinary and random stories. Crucially, similar brain regions were also encoding the features that distinguished the stories. Moreover, we found specific spatial frequency patterns underlying the modulation of semantic control during story generation, while functional coupling in default, salience, and control networks differentiated creative stories with their controls. Remarkably, the temporal irreversibility between visual and high-level areas was higher during creative ideation, suggesting the enhanced hierarchical structure of causal interactions as a neural signature of creative storytelling. Together, our findings highlight the neural mechanisms underlying the regulation of semantic exploration during narrative ideation.
在人类历史中，讲故事对于知识的传播至关重要，然而语义控制及其相关神经动力学的作用却鲜有研究。在这里，人类参与者在进行功能磁共振成像（fMRI）记录时生成了合适（普通）、新颖（随机）或平衡（创造性）的故事。深度语言模型证实了参与者遵守任务指令。在神经层面，无论语义控制水平如何，语言和视觉区域在参与者之间都表现出神经同步，在随机构思过程中顶叶和额叶区域的同步性更强。重要的是，与普通和随机故事相比，创造性故事在额叶和额颞顶叶皮层中表现出多变量神经活动模式。至关重要的是，相似的脑区也在编码区分这些故事的特征。此外，我们发现了故事生成过程中语义控制调制背后的特定空间频率模式，而默认、显著和控制网络中的功能耦合将创造性故事与其对照区分开来。值得注意的是，在创造性构思过程中，视觉和高级区域之间的时间不可逆性更高，这表明因果相互作用的层次结构增强是创造性讲故事的神经特征。总之，我们的研究结果突出了叙事构思过程中语义探索调节的神经机制。
