A great deal of creative ideas are generated under stress. An in-depth understanding covering the relationship between stress and creative problem-solving ability could help people better accomplish creative activities under stress. With the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) axis and the hypothalamus-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, stress from unpredictable, uncontrollable, and threatening situations can trigger homeostatic disruption, and require an adaptive compensatory response. Previous research on the effects of stress on creative thinking presents a complex and inconsistent picture: (1) stressors sometimes decrease creative performance (2) stressors sometimes increase creative performance and (3) stressors are sometimes related to creative performance according to an inverted-U-shaped function. The present study intends to sort out the potential regulatory role that the catecholaminergic system (the dopaminergic system and the noradrenergic system) has played in how stress affects creative problem-solving from the neuroendocrine perspective which may further provides a new explanatory path concerning the relationship between stress and creativity. From the neuroendocrine perspective, dopaminergic modulation of fronto-striatal brain circuitries and the activity of locus coeruleus–norepinephrine may exert significant effect on the creative cognition under stress. Stress can lead to an increase in the dopaminergic system, but whether the increase in the dopaminergic system promotes or blocks the creative performance is affected by both the baseline dopaminergic level and the fronto-striatal dopaminergic increase. In particular, an increase in the fronto-striatal dopaminergic pathway of individuals at high baseline dopaminergic levels may impede creative performance, while an increase in the fronto-striatal dopaminergic pathway in individuals at low dopaminergic baseline levels may promote creative performance. When facing the unexpected stressful stimulus, the disruption of homeostatic balance may lead to the formation of a new steady state, but the direction and stability of this change are different. The regulation of neuromodulation may change or adjust the baseline level, resulting in a directional change on the individuals’ creative performance. With regard to the individuals with low neural network recombination ability, stress may bring about the temporary explosion or attenuation on the individuals’ creative performance. However, with regard to the individuals with higher neural network recombination ability, stress may promote rapid reorganization of individuals, re-establish a new homeostatic balance, and remain a high stability.
Several directions in the future studies have also been proposed. On the one hand, future research needs to take into account the biochemical indicators in the HPA and SNS pathways of the stress response from the perspective of the dynamic balance mechanism of the neuroendocrine system, and investigate the effects of changes in the individual hormone levels on the executive function during the process of creative cognitive processing under stress which could further provide a more systematic explanatory path for revealing the mediating mechanism of stress affecting creativity. On the other hand, future research could combine with the multimodal means such as neuroimaging and biomarker measurement technology by introducing the brain network modelling and dynamic analysis and simulation to provide a comprehensive framework of behaviour-neurological molecular level-brain network on how stress affects creative cognition. Comprehensive collection and integrated monitoring on different time windows can promotes the investigation on the impact of stress on creativity and its neurophysiological mechanisms from a multidisciplinary level.
Neurophysiological Mechanism of Creativity Influenced by Stress[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2022, 45(3): 754-760
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