title: A Neurocognitive Framework for Human Creative Thought.
abstract: We are an intensely creative species. Creativity is the fountainhead of our civilizations and a defining characteristic of what makes us human. But for all its prominence at the apex of human mental faculties, we know next to nothing about how brains generate creative ideas. With all previous attempts to tighten the screws on this vexed problem unsuccessful - right brains, divergent thinking, defocused attention, default mode network, alpha enhancement, prefrontal activation, etc. (Dietrich and Kanso, 2010) - the neuroscientific study of creativity finds itself in a theoretical arid zone that has perhaps no equal in psychology. We propose here a general framework for a fresh attack on the problem and set it out under 10 foundational concepts. Most of the ideas we favor are part and parcel of the standard conceptual toolbox of cognitive neuroscience but their combination and significance to creativity are original. By outlining, even in such broad strokes, the theoretical landscape of cognitive neuroscience as it relates to creative insights, we hope to bring into clear focus the key enabling factors that are likely to have a hand in computing ideational combinations in the brain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, American University of Beirut Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dietrich
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cologne Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Hilde
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Haider
keywords: connectionist architecture; consciousness; creativity; default network; emulation/simulation; evolutionary psychology; prediction; task set