title: Training of verbal creativity modulates brain activity in regions associated with language- and memory-related demands.
abstract: This functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study was designed to investigate changes in functional patterns of brain activity during creative ideation as a result of a computerized, 3-week verbal creativity training. The training was composed of various verbal divergent thinking exercises requiring participants to train approximately 20 min per day. Fifty-three participants were tested three times (psychometric tests and fMRI assessment) with an intertest-interval of 4 weeks each. Participants were randomly assigned to two different training groups, which received the training time-delayed: The first training group was trained between the first and the second test, while the second group accomplished the training between the second and the third test session. At the behavioral level, only one training group showed improvements in different facets of verbal creativity right after the training. Yet, functional patterns of brain activity during creative ideation were strikingly similar across both training groups. Whole-brain voxel-wise analyses (along with supplementary region of interest analyses) revealed that the training was associated with activity changes in well-known creativity-related brain regions such as the left inferior parietal cortex and the left middle temporal gyrus, which have been shown as being particularly sensitive to the originality facet of creativity in previous research. Taken together, this study demonstrates that continuous engagement in a specific complex cognitive task like divergent thinking is associated with reliable changes of activity patterns in relevant brain areas, suggesting more effective search, retrieval, and integration from internal memory representations as a result of the training.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fink
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Benedek
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koschutnig
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pirker
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meister
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Aljoscha C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Neubauer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Ilona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Papousek
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Elisabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: divergent thinking; functional magnetic resonance imaging; inferior parietal cortex; middle temporal gyrus; training; verbal creativity