Creative Connections: Computational Semantic Distance Captures Individual Creativity and Resting-State Functional Connectivity

• Published in: Journal of cognitive neuroscience Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 499 - 509
• Main Authors: Orwig, William, Diez, Ibai, Vannini, Patrizia, Beaty, Roger, Sepulcre, Jorge
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209, USA MIT Press 01.03.2021; MIT Press Journals, The
• Subjects: Adult; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain Mapping; Cognitive ability; Computational neuroscience; Cortex (parietal); Creativity; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Neural networks; Neuroimaging; Occipital lobe; Semantics; Substantia grisea; Temporal cortex
• ISSN: 0898-929X; 1530-8898; 1530-8898
• DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01658

Recent studies of creative cognition have revealed interactions between functional brain networks involved in the generation of novel ideas; however, the neural basis of creativity is highly complex and presents a great challenge in the field of cognitive neuroscience, partly because of ambiguity around how to assess creativity. We applied a novel computational method of verbal creativity assessment—semantic distance—and performed weighted degree functional connectivity analyses to explore how individual differences in assembly of resting-state networks are associated with this objective creativity assessment. To measure creative performance, a sample of healthy adults ( = 175) completed a battery of divergent thinking (DT) tasks, in which they were asked to think of unusual uses for everyday objects. Computational semantic models were applied to calculate the semantic distance between objects and responses to obtain an objective measure of DT performance. All participants underwent resting-state imaging, from which we computed voxel-wise connectivity matrices between all gray matter voxels. A linear regression analysis was applied between DT and weighted degree of the connectivity matrices. Our analysis revealed a significant connectivity decrease in the visual-temporal and parietal regions, in relation to increased levels of DT. Link-level analyses showed higher local connectivity within visual regions was associated with lower DT, whereas projections from the precuneus to the right inferior occipital and temporal cortex were positively associated with DT. Our results demonstrate differential patterns of resting-state connectivity associated with individual creative thinking ability, extending past work using a new application to automatically assess creativity via semantic distance.