Open AccessEvidence for a left‐over‐right inhibitory mechanism during figural creative thinking in healthy nonartists
Author(s) -
Huang Peiyu,
Qiu Lihua,
Shen Lin,
Zhang Yong,
Song Zhe,
Qi Zhiguo,
Gong Qiyong,
Xie Peng
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.22093
Subject(s) - creativity , psychology , frontal lobe , lateralization of brain function , functional magnetic resonance imaging , mechanism (biology) , parietal lobe , right hemisphere , left and right , creative thinking , occipital lobe , pathological , neuroscience , cognitive psychology , medicine , social psychology , philosophy , structural engineering , epistemology , engineering
As a complex mental process, creativity requires the coordination of multiple brain regions. Previous pathological research on figural creativity has indicated that there is a mechanism by which the left side of the brain inhibits the activities of the right side of the brain during figural creative thinking, but this mechanism has not been directly demonstrated. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate the existence of this inhibitory mechanism in young adults (15 women, 11 men, mean age: 22 years) that were not artists. By making comparisons between brain activity during creative and uncreative tasks, we found increased activity in the left middle and inferior frontal lobe and strong decreases in activity in the right middle frontal lobe and the left inferior parietal lobe. As such, these data suggest that the left frontal lobe may inhibit the right hemisphere during figural creative thinking in normal people. Moreover, removal of this inhibition by practicing artistry or through specific damage to the left frontal lobe may facilitate the emergence of artistic creativity. Hum Brain Mapp 34:2724–2732, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.