title: Creativity meets neuroscience: experimental tasks for the neuroscientific study of creative thinking.
abstract: The psychometric assessment of different facets of creative abilities as well as the availability of experimental tasks for the neuroscientific study of creative thinking has replaced the view of creativity as an unsearchable trait. In this article we provide a brief overview of contemporary methodologies used for the operationalization of creative thinking in a neuroscientific context. Empirical studies are reported which measured brain activity (by means of EEG, fMRI, NIRS or PET) during the performance of different experimental tasks. These tasks, along with creative idea generation tasks used in our laboratory, constitute useful tools in uncovering possible brain correlates of creative thinking. Nevertheless, much more work is needed in order to establish reliable and valid measures of creative thinking, in particular measures of novelty or originality of creative insights.
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Universitaetsplatz 2/III, A-8010 Graz, Austria. andreas.fink@uni-graz.at
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Fink
authors: Mathias
authors: M
authors: Benedek
authors: Roland H
authors: RH
authors: Grabner
authors: Beate
authors: B
authors: Staudt
authors: Aljoscha C
authors: AC
authors: Neubauer
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D019336:Cognitive Science / Q000379:methods; D003405:Creativity; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000379:methods*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis