Dynamic reconfiguration of default and frontoparietal network supports creative incubation.

Although creative ideas often emerge during distraction activities unrelated to the creative task, empirical research has yet to reveal the underlying neurocognitive mechanism. Using an incubation paradigm, we temporarily disengaged participants from the initial creative ideation task and required them to conduct two different distraction activities (moderately-demanding: 1-back working memory task, non-demanding: 0-back choice reaction time task), then returned them to the previous creative task. On the process of creative ideation, we calculated the representational dissimilarities between the two creative ideation phases before and after incubation period to estimate the neural representational change underlying successful incubation.

The function of medial temporal lobe and posterior middle temporal gyrus in forming creative associations.

Although the function of the hippocampus and adjacent medial temporal lobe (MTL) areas in forming associations is generally recognized, how MTL contributes to form creative associations that could result in novel and appropriate functions or meanings remains unclear. In this study, we compared highly creative combinations (HCCs) of two objects (e.g.

Dissociable Posterior and Anterior Insula Activations in Processing Negative Stimulus Before and After the Application of Cognitive Reappraisals.

Although the role of the insular cortex in representing bodily and emotional feelings has been recognized, whether the mid-posterior and anterior parts of the insula act differentially in the encoding and regulation of emotional feelings is still unclear. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined the effects of the creative cognitive reappraisals versus the non-creative ordinary reappraisals on the activation pattern of the mid-posterior and anterior insular cortex during the processing of unpleasant pictures by comparing the neural correlates for processing these pictures before and after the application of cognitive reappraisals. We found significant anterior insular activation after the application of cognitive reappraisals, especially the creative ones, in contrast to the significant mid-posterior insular activation before the application of the cognitive reappraisals or after the application of the non-creative ordinary reappraisals.

Superior emotional regulating effects of creative cognitive reappraisal.

Although the effects of cognitive reappraisal in regulating negative emotion are generally well documented, its regulatory effects are usually not very strong because the ordinary reappraisals employed in previous studies were insufficient to overcome the mental set or response bias toward negative situations. In this study, we developed a new strategy employing creative reappraisals that provides an insightful reinterpretation of the negative stimulus. We believe this approach, through adopting a guided (creative) reappraisal rather than self-generation strategy, will greatly improve the emotion regulation effect of reappraisal through activating the neural networks representing the process of deep and structural mental representational change accompanied by the feeling of positive emotion and mental reward.

Incubation optimizes the promoting effects of rewards on creativity.

We tested the incubation effect on promoting problem-solving insight in a "test-incubation-retest" procedure in different groups receiving a reward notification (RN) before or after the incubation phase, or no RN. Only RN given before incubation significantly promoted creative performance, implying that incubation may help optimize the promoting effects of reward on creativity.

Distinct brain activity in processing negative pictures of animals and objects - the role of human contexts.

Previous studies have shown that the amygdala is important in processing not only animate entities but also social information. It remains to be determined to what extent the factors of category and social context interact to modulate the activities of the amygdala and cortical regions. In this study, pictures depicting animals and inanimate objects in negative and neutral levels were presented.

Are we afraid of different categories of stimuli in identical ways? Evidence from skin conductance responses.

Studies have shown that emotional pictures attract more attention than neutral pictures, and pictures of living stimuli have similar advantage in driving attention (vs. nonliving). However, factors of emotion, category and picture context are usually mixed so that whether living and nonliving categories elicit different skin conductance (SC) responses, in both conscious and unconscious conditions, remains to be clarified.