title: Brain structure links trait creativity to openness to experience.
abstract: Creativity is crucial to the progression of human civilization and has led to important scientific discoveries. Especially, individuals are more likely to have scientific discoveries if they possess certain personality traits of creativity (trait creativity), including imagination, curiosity, challenge and risk-taking. This study used voxel-based morphometry to identify the brain regions underlying individual differences in trait creativity, as measured by the Williams creativity aptitude test, in a large sample (n = 246). We found that creative individuals had higher gray matter volume in the right posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), which might be related to semantic processing during novelty seeking (e.g. novel association, conceptual integration and metaphor understanding). More importantly, although basic personality factors such as openness to experience, extroversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness (as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory) all contributed to trait creativity, only openness to experience mediated the association between the right pMTG volume and trait creativity. Taken together, our results suggest that the basic personality trait of openness might play an important role in shaping an individual's trait creativity.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China qiuj318@swu.edu.cn Liujia@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Wenfu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China qiuj318@swu.edu.cn Liujia@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xueting
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Lijie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Xiangzhen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Dongtao
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Jingguang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Hongsheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Qinglin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China qiuj318@swu.edu.cn Liujia@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China, School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China, and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China qiuj318@swu.edu.cn Liujia@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001077:Aptitude Tests; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003405:Creativity; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality; D010556:Personality Tests; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: creativity assessment packet; openness to experience; trait creativity; voxel-based morphometry