Neuroanatomy of Creativity

創造力的神經解剖

Reporter ： March Sep 13, 2010

Human Brain Mapping (2009) [6.256]

Recent efforts have focused on cognitive processes likely to be important to the manifestation of novelty and usefulness within a given social context.

The distribution of brain regions, associated with both divergent thinking( 使用 :CCI 綜合創造性指標 ) and creative achievement( 使用 :CAQ 創意成就問卷 ), suggests that cognitive control of information flow among brain areas may be critical to understanding creative cognition.

枕葉舌迴內的區域和 CCI有負相關；右後扣帶腦皮質和 CCI有正相關。

對 CAQ來說，較低的左前額區腦底部體積與較高的創造性成就有關；在右大腦角迴有較高的大腦皮質厚度與較高的 CAQ得分有關。

這是第一個把大腦皮質厚度測量與創造力的心理量測連結起來的第一個研究。

◎ 大腦大約劃分成四的區域，四個葉 (Lobe) ◎ 葉上面有好多個大腦皮質區 (Cortex) 負責各種功能 ◎ 這些功能主要有「知覺」和「運動」以及人類獨有的「語言」能力 ◎ 大腦皮質包在外面，中間還有演化上比較早出現的區域，像是有名的杏仁體 (Amygdala) 。

額葉 (Frontal Lobe) 掌管人類決策、計畫、和個性。 枕葉 (Occipital Lobe ) 則是有視覺訊號處理的區域。頂葉 (Parietal Lobe ) 掌管身體知覺和空間知覺。 顳葉 (Temperal Lobe ) 和聽覺、視知覺、以及記憶有關。

大腦皮質分區之功能：大腦皮質分區之功能： Frontal Lobe

1. 額葉和前額葉皮質功能與創造力表現

額葉皮質與心智功能最為密切相關，通常也被認為是四區之首。

它負責語文、人格結構、抽象思考、記憶力、注意力、判斷力和其種種高級的皮質中樞功能，其中前額葉皮質之角色尤為關鍵，因此至今雖未證實，但由於推想，額葉皮質必然與創造力有很大的關連。

而根據醫學研究顯示，額葉皮質的傷害或障礙將可以明顯的造成一個人的人格退化敗壞，出現不適當或反常的言行、激躁不安或憂鬱不動緒等情緒障礙，理解和語言形成及表達能力降低，邏輯思考能力不良，以及根本無法專心應付或學習外界事務。

◎較低的左前額區腦底部體積 (left lateral orbitofrontal volume)與 較高的 (CAQ)創造性成就有關；

◎ 愛因斯坦的腦有一個較短的側面溝 (lateral sulcus)，即有一部分消失。他的腦也較其他人的腦寬了百分之十五。研究者認為這些獨一無二的腦部特徵，使得神經細胞之間有較好的連結，這對數學與空間推理是非常重要的。

大腦皮質分區之功能：大腦皮質分區之功能： Occipital Lobe

2.枕葉皮質功能與創造力表現

枕葉皮質是四大皮質腦區中功能最單純的一區，通常被認為只與視覺能力有關。若發生病變可引起各種視幻覺、視覺或任何歇斯底里性的視覺扭曲變形現象，因而除了造成創造性視覺成果和視決感受之影響外，可能與整體之創造力較不發生關聯。 (有研究指出枕葉舌迴與語言學習有關 )

◎枕葉舌迴內的區域和 CCI(綜合創意指標 ) 有負相關。

大腦皮質分區之功能：大腦皮質分區之功能： Parietal Lobe

3. 頂葉皮質功能與創造力表現

頂葉皮質雖與心智機能較無直接的關聯，但它負責與精神人格狀相關的一些感覺和運動功能，包括聽覺和視覺訊息的傳達，所以頂葉功能的障礙一樣可以影響到有效創造力的蘊釀過程，或造成一定程度的失用症、失讀症、認識不能、左右判斷不佳、空間感不良、計算推演能力喪失等症狀，而嚴重影響創造性思維的品質。

◎在右大腦角迴 (right angular gyrus) 有較高的大腦皮質厚度與 較高的 CAQ(創造成就 ) 得分有關。

大腦皮質分區之功能：大腦皮質分區之功能： Temperal Lobe

4. 顳葉皮質功能與創造力表現

顳葉皮質一般認為是與整體心智精神功能其次相關的腦區，它負責語言的理解能力、性行為和本能之趨策或侵略性行為，以及接受由舊腦內之綠葉系統所負責的情緒功能的傳入迅息做反應。

此外，它也與一部份長期之記憶功能高度相關，因而亦可推想與有關創造力、直覺反應、心靈激發、腦力激盪和情緒之培養策動有很大的關係。雖然不直接涉及思想功能，但顳葉皮質若受到傷害或產生障礙後可以造成很多非理智的衝動性行為、失語症和記憶比較能力的缺失，使一個人情緒不穩，而無法做有效的創造力之養成過程。

◎右後扣帶腦皮質 (right posterior cingulate)和 CCI(綜合創意指標 ) 有正相關。

◎ 後扣帶廻（ posterior cingulate cortex）是大腦中作危險選擇的位置。 後扣帶廻皮質和瞬間的獎賞迴饋相關。

[INTRODUCTION][INTRODUCTION]

Like intelligence, academic discussions over definitions of this construct extend over decades and involve considerations of the creative person, the cognitive process underlying creativity, the creative environment or influence, and the creative product (Batey and Furnham, 2006).

A main challenge is to avoid the many facile simplifications that often arise when discussing such a complex cognitive construct (Dietrich, 2007).

[INTRODUCTION][INTRODUCTION]

There likely exist myriad cognitive skills necessary to produce something both ‘‘novel and useful.’’

In laboratory settings, the assessment of subject engagement in creative tasks is made mostly by tests of divergent thinking (DT), the process by which one extrapolates many possible answers to an initial stimulus or target data set (Guilford, 1967).

[INTRODUCTION][INTRODUCTION]

Neurological inquiries regarding creativity have tended to focus on whether the frontal lobes ( 額葉 )are engaged or whether more posterior brain regions後扣帶 腦皮質區 (Heilman et al., 2003)

or subcortical structures ( 皮質下的結構 )such as the basal ganglia are more predominant (Dietrich, 2004).

---------------------------------------------------------------------Such efforts are based largely on data gleaned from neurological and psychiatric patients (Pollack et al., 2007).

[Early EEG studies ][Early EEG studies ]

Early EEG studies demonstrated that highly creative individuals differed from normal controls in :

(1)greater activity within right parieto temporal areas( 顳葉區與活力 ), (2)higher alpha activity during analogs of ‘‘inspiration,’’ (α 波與靈感 )(3)greater tendency to present physiological over-response( 生理回應與傾向 ).

(Martindale and Greenough, 1973; Martindale and Hasenfus, 1978; Martindale and Hines, 1975).

[The newest phase of EEG studies of creativity][The newest phase of EEG studies of creativity]

One research group has contributed much to the newest phase of EEG studies of creativity, with initial studies showing lower levels of cortical arousal during creative problem solving, and stronger alpha synchronization in centroparietal cortices associated with more original responses (Fink and Neubauer, 2006). ( 在創造性問題解決過程中，大腦皮質興奮水平較低，有較強的 α 波同步 )

This same group found the creativity–alpha power relationship to be mediated by the personality characteristic of Introversion–Extraversion 內外向性格(Fink and Neubauer, 2008).

還有相當大的異質性研究的結果，在腦電圖的創意認知上，使其難以對於 α 活性與側半球皮質的影響或方向得出結論。

腦部研究的工具，包括 EEG 、 MRI 、 PET、還有最新的FMRI，都可以深入地研究，以針對創造力這個領域有更進ㄧ步的了解。

For example, a wealth of research exists from the psychometric literature( 心理測量 ) linking creativity to intelligence and personality variables (Batey and Furnham, 2006),

Yet these measures are rarely included in modern neuroimaging studies to assess the discriminant validity of the creativity measure of interest (e.g., DT).

All studies have relatively small samples limiting statistical power.

The current report attempts to address some of these shortcomings by:

(1)administration of psychometrically valid measures of intelligence, personality, and creativity (i.e., DT, creative achievement) to a large cohort of healthy subjects,(2)undertaking the first structural magnetic resonance imaging study linking constructs central to creativity to cortical thickness, ( 磁共振成像與腦皮質厚度 )

(3)linking our results to previous studies across the neuroscientific, behavioral neurology, and psychometric literatures.( 聯繫我們以往的研究成果於整個神經科學，行為神經學，心理量測。 )

Based on these findings we hypothesized that :

(1)a priori, cortical thickness in the cingulate gyrus would be associated with increased creativity as measured by DT ( 腦皮質層厚度在扣帶迴會帶來更多的創造力 )

(1)in exploratory tests across the entire cortical mantle, less thickness would be associated with increased creativity as measured by DT. (腦皮質層厚度不足將帶來更多的創造力 )

METHODSMETHODSSampleSampleSixty-five subjects were recruited for the present study. Four subjects were not included in the analysis due to missing behavioral data, leaving a final sample of sixty one. Fifty-six of these sixty-one subjects were reported on previously in research linking DT to NAA (Jung et al., 2009).

Subjects were young adults (23.7 ! 4.2 years), well matched by sex (33 males, 28 females), and the two sexes did not differ significantly on Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient 智力商數 (FSIQ) from the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence韋氏智力量表 (males ¼ 118.12 ! 10.78; females ¼ 117.14 ! 8.41). They were recruited by postings in various departments and classrooms around the University of New Mexico.

Behavioral MeasuresBehavioral Measures(CAQ (CAQ 、、 DT: CCI & WASI)DT: CCI & WASI)All subjects completed the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ), a reliable and valid measure of creative productivity across ten domains including visual arts, music, creative writing, dance, drama, architecture, humor, scientificdiscovery, invention, and culinary arts (Carson et al., 2005).

創造性的生產力跨越 10個領域包括視覺藝術，音樂，創意寫作，舞蹈，戲劇，建築，幽默，科學發現，發明，和烹飪藝術。

Three DT tasks were administered: Free Condition of the Design Fluency Test (DFT), Four Line Condition of the DFT, and Uses of Objects Test (UOT) (Lezak et al., 2004).

Participants were also administered the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The WASI consists of four subtests: Vocabulary, Similarities, Block Design, and Matrix Reasoning (Wechsler, 1999).

Image Acquisition and ProcessingImage Acquisition and Processing(( 圖像採集與處理圖像採集與處理 ))

Free- Surfer image analysis suite

The methodology for FreeSurfer is described in full in several papers (Dale et al., 1999; Dale and Sereno, 1993; Desikan et al., 2006; Fischl and Dale, 2000; Fischl et al., 1999a,b, 2001, 2002, 2004a,b; Segonne et al., 2007). 哈佛與史丹佛大學共同研發之軟體。

METHODSMETHODSStatistical AnalysisStatistical Analysis

To investigate the correlation between cortical thickness measurements and creativity scores, we performed a surfacebased group analysis using tools within FreeSurfer.

RESULTSRESULTSStatistical AnalysisStatistical AnalysisFinally, the CCI and CAQ were weakly correlated (r ¼ 0.26, P ¼ 0.05).

We found several discrete clusters at P < 0.01 that had a negative correlation with CCI and cortical thickness, which indicated decreased cortical thickness in relation to higher CCI scores (Fig. 1a–c and Table I).

DISCUSSIONDISCUSSION

DISCUSSIONDISCUSSION

DISCUSSIONDISCUSSION

we found an interplay of increased gray matter thickness related to both CCI and CAQ performance within the right posterior cingulate gyrus and right angular gyrus,

這是第一個腦皮層層厚度與創造力心理測量的鍊結研究。

測量 DT(CCI)和創造性成就 (CAQ)。我們發現了在一個網絡中腦皮層厚度增加會與創造力減少有關。

我們在右後扣帶迴和右側角迴，找到了一個相互作用的灰質厚度增加與CCI有關。

These regions all survived Monte-Carlo simulations 蒙地卡羅模擬與評估出現的機會to assess whether they could have arisen by chance; therefore, subsequent discussions can be undertaken with some level of certainty, given that this is the first study to link cortical thickness measures to psychometric measures of creativity in a normal healthy cohort.

In applying this viewpoint to our cortical thickness results, a possible interpretation of our findings is that the generation of novel, original ideas ( 原創構想 )is associated with less cortical thickness within frontal( 額葉 ) and (certain) posterior cortical regions ( 後皮質層 ), requiring higher functional activation to initiate cognitive control.( 需要較高的功能活化以啟動認知控制 )

However, the psychometric strength of such measures cannot hide the fact that subjects are not being creative in the laboratory, only simulating cognitive proxies for creativity and self-reporting their creative success out in the world.

然而，這些測量有無法掩蓋的事實，所測對象都是在沒有創造性的實驗室，只是孤絕於世外，模擬創造力的認知代理的和自我報告他們的創造性成就。

[see Sternberg (1999; p. 7) for discussion].