Creative thinking as orchestrated by semantic processing vs. cognitive control brain networks.

Creativity is primarily investigated within the neuroscientific perspective as a unitary construct. While such an approach is beneficial when trying to infer the general picture regarding creativity and brain function, it is insufficient if the objective is to uncover the information processing brain mechanisms by which creativity occurs. As creative thinking emerges through the dynamic interplay between several cognitive processes, assessing the neural correlates of these operations would enable the development and characterization of an information processing framework from which to better understand this complex ability. This article focuses on two aspects of creative cognition that are central to generating original ideas. "Conceptual expansion" refers to the ability to widen one's conceptual structures to include unusual or novel associations, while "overcoming knowledge constraints" refers to our ability to override the constraining influence imposed by salient or pertinent knowledge when trying to be creative. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence is presented to illustrate how semantic processing and cognitive control networks in the brain differentially modulate these critical facets of creative cognition

Multimodal imagery in music: Active ingredients and mechanisms underlying musical engagement

Clinicians and researchers have provided strong evidence for the efficacy of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) and similar therapies across a wide range of clinical conditions. What is still lacking is a theoretical framework that would allow identification of the ‘active ingredients’ in this process. This paper seeks to introduce a new systemic framework for investigating such therapies by examining the biological roots as well as the role of music in the regulation of individual and social life to maintain homeostasis via multimodality by means of arousal, imagery, attentional engagement, emotion, memory and analogous processes. Taking the work of Edelman, Damasio and other leaders of modern neuroscience as a point of departure, homeostasis and multimodality are presented as essential not only to the human life process in terms of our active mental life but also to the fullness of Edelman's "primary consciousness" and Damasio's "core self." The implications of these intricate cross-connections are considered as well as the unique propensity for music to spontaneously and multimodally engage these connections. Proposals to evaluate these ideas and stimulate further research in both basic science and clinical practice are made

The Imaginative Mind

The astounding capacity for the human imagination to be engaged across a wide range of contexts is limitless and fundamental to our day-to-day experiences. Although processes of imagination are central to human psychological function, they rarely occupy center stage in academic discourse or empirical study within psychological and neuroscientific realms. The aim of the paper is to tackle this imbalance by drawing together the multitudinous facets of imagination within a common framework. The processes fall into one of five categories depending on whether they are characterized as involving perceptual/motor related mental imagery, intentionality or recollective processing, novel combinatorial or generative processing, exceptional phenomenology in the aesthetic response, or altered psychological states which range from commonplace to dysfunctional. These proposed categories are defined on the basis of theoretical ideas from philosophy as well as empirical evidence from neuroscience. By synthesizing the findings across these domains of imagination, this novel five-part or quinquepartite classification of the human imagination aids in systematizing, and thereby abets, our understanding of the workings and brain basis of the human imagination. It would serve as a blueprint to direct further advances in the field of imagination while also promoting crosstalk with reference to stimulus-oriented facets of information processing. A biologically and ecologically valid psychology is one that seeks to explain fundamental aspects of human nature. Given the ubiquitous nature of the imaginative operations in our daily lives, there can be little doubt that these quintessential aspects of the mind should be central to the discussion

Comparing the efficacy of four brief inductions in boosting short-term creativity

Augmenting creative performance has the potential to benefit both the individual and our society. Several studies have evaluated the impact of different behavioral training or induction methods on creativity. However, the findings are mixed and sometimes contradictory. Four different short-term induction methods which differed along two information processing dimensions – modality and demand – were compared within a single experimental paradigm alongside a non-induction control condition to determine which was the most effective at improving creativity. A comparison on the experimental inductions revealed that low demand induction methods boosted creativity more than high demand induction methods. However, this pattern was not maintained when comparisons included the non-induction control. These findings provide insights on factors that need to be taken into account at the level of experimental design in order to be able to evaluate the efficacy of different induction and training methods on creativity

Creative conceptual expansion: A combined fMRI replication and extension study to examine individual differences in creativity

The aims of this fMRI study were two-fold. The first objective of the study was to verify whether the findings associated with a previous fMRI study could be replicated in which a novel event-related experimental design was developed which rendered it possible to investigate the brain basis of creative conceptual expansion. The ability to widen the boundaries of conceptual structures is integral to creative idea generation, which makes conceptual expansion a core component of creative cognition. Creative conceptual expansion led to the engagement of brain regions that are known to be involved in the access, storage and relational integration of conceptual knowledge in the original study. These included the anterior inferior frontal gyrus, the temporal poles and the lateral frontal pole. These findings in relation to the brain basis of creative conceptual expansion were replicated in the current study. The second objective of this study was to evaluate the brain basis of individual differences in creative conceptual expansion. The high creative group relative to the low creative group was shown to exhibit greater activity in regions of the semantic cognition network as well as the salience network during creative conceptual expansion. The findings are discussed from the point of view of classical hypotheses about information processing biases that explain individual differences in creativity including flat associative hierarchies, defocused attention and cognitive disinhibition

Long-lived stops in MSSM scenarios with a neutralino LSP

This work investigates the possibility of a long-lived stop squark in supersymmetric models with the neutralino as the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). We study the implications of meta-stable stops on the sparticle mass spectra and the dark matter density. We find that in order to obtain a sufficiently long stop lifetime so as to be observable as a stable R-hadron at an LHC experiment, we need to fine tune the mass degeneracy between the stop and the LSP considerably. This increases the stop-neutralino coanihilation cross section, leaving the neutralino relic density lower than what is expected from the WMAP results for stop masses ~1.5 TeV/c^2. However, if such scenarios are realised in nature we demonstrate that the long-lived stops will be produced at the LHC and that stop-based R-hadrons with masses up to 1 TeV/c^2 can be detected after one year of running at design luminosity