The Neural Mechanism of Artistic Creative Process

Zhang Xuan; Zhou Xiaolin

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240129

PDF(359 KB)

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (1) : 246-252. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240129

Theories & History of Psychology

The Neural Mechanism of Artistic Creative Process

Zhang Xuan^1,2, Zhou Xiaolin^3,4

Author information +

History +

Abstract

Artistic creative process is the process that artists solve artistic problems and produce creative ideas and products with highly aesthetic value. Artistic creation is a specialized creation. The Geneplore Model suggests that the general creative process includes two stages, including the Generative process and Exploration process. In the generative process, individuals generate useful components related to creativity and combine them together to form pre-creative structures. In the exploration process, individuals interpret pre-creative structures, and select and verify the generated artistic ideas. The brain network dynamic model illuminates that the neural basis of the creative idea generation and exploration process involves the dynamics of the brain’s default network and executive control network interaction.
In this article, we review recent work on the neural substrates of artistic creativity. Abundant studies have demonstrated that the generation of artistic creative ideas involves the separate function of the prefrontal cortex, while the exploration of artistic creative ideas is related to the cooperation of the executive network and the default network. In the generative process, the separate function of the prefrontal cortex is extensive inactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is responsible for executive control, and the activation of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which is responsible for generating new artistic creative ideas. Activation of the default network contributes to the generation of artistic creative ideas, and the inactivation of the executive control brain region reduces its inhibitory effect on the generation of artistic creative ideas. In the exploration process, the executive network and the default network are cooperated to generate and maintain the internal creative thinking, evaluate and select the generated artistic creative ideas. However, the activation of caudate nucleus, the deactivation of the default mode network, and the activation of the limbic network during the artistic creative process indicate that, beyond the dual-process highlighted by the Geneplore model, there is an intuitive process accompanied by emotion in the process of artistic creation, which may be a cognitive process in the special field of artistic creation. In the process of artistic creation, lots of artists reported that they have a peak creative and holistic experience and enter a flow state. Compared with the general creative process, artistic creation has an emotional intuitive cognitive process, which is an implicit level of cognition, and the neural mechanism involves that the activation of caudate nucleus, the deactivation of the default mode network, and the activation of the limbic network.
Although we speculate that the creative processes of these different art forms have great commonalities, more research on the creative processes of different art types is still needed to provide evidence of their commonalities and differences. Due to the lack of evidence on cognitive neural mechanism with high time resolution in the process of artistic creation, whether generation-exploration processing and emotional intuitive cognitive processing have the chronological order in artistic creation needs to be supported by the empirical evidence of the time process of artistic creation, and further improve the theoretical model of neural mechanism in the process of artistic creation. In the future, researches should be conducted on the embodied mechanism of the artistic creative process.

Key words

artistic creative process / Geneplore model / neural mechanism

Cite this article

EndNote

Ris (Procite)

Bibtex

Download Citations

Zhang Xuan, Zhou Xiaolin. The Neural Mechanism of Artistic Creative Process[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2024, 47(1): 246-252 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240129

References

[1] 海德格尔. (2000). 荷尔德林诗的阐释(孙周兴译).商务印书馆.
[2] 李泽厚. (2019). 美学四讲. 长江文艺出版社
[3] 林郁泓, 叶超群, 刘春雷. (2021). 创造性思维的认知神经机制: 基于EEG和fMRI研究证据. 心理研究, 14(2), 107-117.
[4] 邱江, 张庆林. (2011). 创新思维中原型激活促发顿悟的认知神经机制. 心理科学进展, 19(3), 312-317.
[5] 斯蒂芬·茨威格. (2019). 人类群星闪耀时(姜乙译). 上海文艺出版社.
[6] 孙非. (1982). 艺术创造的心理条件. 上海文艺出版社.
[7] 姚海娟, 王金霞, 苏清丽, 白学军. (2018). 具身情绪与创造性思维: 情境性调节定向的调节作用. 心理与行为研究, 16(4), 441-448.
[8] 叶浩生. (2011). 有关具身认知思潮的理论心理学思考. 心理学报, 43(5), 589-598.
[9] 詹慧佳, 刘昌, 沈汪兵. (2015). 创造性思维四阶段的神经基础. 心理科学进展, 23(2), 213-224.
[10] 张璇, 周晓林. (2021). 神经类学视角的审美愉悦加工机制. 心理科学进展, 29(10), 1847-1854.
[11] 周宪. (2009). 走向创造的境界. 南京大学出版社.
[12] Aziz-Zadeh L., Liew S. L., & Dandekar F. (2013). Exploring the neural correlates of visual creativity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8(4), 475-480.
[13] Baer, J. (1998). The case for domain specificity of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 11(2), 173-177.
[14] Baer, J., & Kaufman, J. C. (2005). Bridging generality and specificity: The Amusement Park Theoretical (APT) model of creativity. Roeper Review, 27(3), 158-163.
[15] Barrett K. C., Barrett F. S., Jiradejvong P., Rankin S. K., Landau A. T., & Limb C. J. (2020). Classical creativity: A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation of pianist and improviser Gabriela Montero. NeuroImage, 209, 116496.
[16] Beaty R. E., Benedek M., Silvia P. J., & Schacter D. L. (2016). Creative cognition and brain network dynamics. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(2), 87-95.
[17] Beaty R. E., Kenett Y. N., Christensen A. P., Rosenberg M. D., Benedek M., Chen Q. L., & Silvia P. J. (2018). Robust prediction of individual creative ability from brain functional connectivity. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the Unite States of America, 115(5), 1087-1092.
[18] Benedek M., Christensen A. P., Fink A., & Beaty R. E. (2019). Creativity assessment in neuroscience research. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13(2), 218-226.
[19] Benedek M., Jung R. E., & Vartanian O. (2018). The neural bases of creativity and intelligence: Common ground and differences. Neuropsychologia, 118, 1-3.
[20] Bhattacharya, J., & Petsche, H. (2005). Drawing on mind's canvas: Differences in cortical integration patterns between artists and non-artists. Human Brain Mapping, 26(1), 1-14.
[21] Chen Q. L., Beaty R. E., & Qiu J. (2020). Mapping the artistic brain: Common and distinct neural activations associated with musical, drawing, and literary creativity. Human Brain Mapping, 41(12), 3403-3419.
[22] Cross E. S., de C. Hamilton, A. F., & Grafton S. T. (2006). Building a motor simulation de novo: Observation of dance by dancers. NeuroImage, 31(3), 1257-1267.
[23] deManzano, Ö., & Ullén, F. (2012). Goal-independent mechanisms for free response generation: Creative and pseudo-random performance share neural substrates. NeuroImage, 59(1), 772-780.
[24] Dijksterhuis, A., & Nordgren, L. F. (2006). A theory of unconscious thought. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(2), 95-109.
[25] Erhard K., Kessler F., Neumann N., Orthell, H J., & Lotze M. (2014). Professional training in creative writing is associated with enhanced fronto-striatal activity in a literary text continuation task. NeuroImage, 100, 15-23.
[26] Feist, G. J. (1998). A meta-analysis of personality in scientific and artistic creativity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2(4), 290-309.
[27] Finke R. A., Ward T. B., & Smith, S. M. (1992). Creative cognition: Theory, research, and applications The MIT Press Theory, research, and applications. The MIT Press.
[28] Jung R. E., Mead B. S., Carrasco J., & Flores R. A. (2013). The structure of creative cognition in the human brain. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 330.
[29] Kühn S., Schmiedek F., Noack H.,Wenger E., Bodammer N. C., Lindenberger U., & Lövdén M. (2013). The dynamics of change in striatal activity following updatingtraining. Human Brain Mapping, 34(7), 1530-1541.
[30] Limb, C. J., & Braun, A. R. (2008). Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: An fMRI study of jazz improvisation. PLoS ONE, 3(2), e1679.
[31] Liu S. Y., Erkkinen M. G., Healey M. L., Xu Y. S., Swett K. E., Chow H. M., & Braun A. R. (2015). Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process. Human Brain Mapping, 36(9), 3351-3372.
[32] Liu Z. W., Zhang J., Xie X. H., Rolls E. T., Sun J. Z., Zhang K., & Feng J. F. (2018). Neural and genetic determinants of creativity. NeuroImage, 174, 164-176.
[33] Mayseless N., Eran A., & Shamay-Tsoory S. G. (2015). Generating original ideas: The neural underpinning of originality. NeuroImage, 116, 232-239.
[34] Pinho A. L., Ullén F., Castelo-Branco M., Fransson P., & de Manzano O. (2016). Addressing a paradox: Dual strategies for creative performance in introspective and extrospectivenetworks. Cerebral Cortex, 26(7), 3052-3063.
[35] Plucker, J. A. (2005). The (relatively)generalist view of creativity. In J. C. Kaufman & J. Baer (Eds.), Creativity across domains: Faces of the muse (pp. 307-312). Erlbaum.
[36] Speitel C., Traut-Mattausch E., & Jonas E. (2019). Functions of the right DLPFC and right TPJ in proposers and responders in the ultimatum game. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,14(3), 263-270.
[37] Spreng R. N., Gerlach K. D., Turner G. R., & Schacter D. L. (2015). Autobiographical planning and the brain: Activation and its modulation by qualitative features. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27(11), 2147-2157.
[38] Stanciu, M. M. (2015). Embodied creativity: A critical analysis of an underdeveloped subject. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 187, 312-317.
[39] Sternberg, R. J. (2005). Creativity or creativities? International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 63(4-5), 370-382.
[40] Sternberg, R. J., & Lubart, T. I. (1996). Investing in creativity. American Psychologist, 51(7), 677-688.
[41] Tanaka S. C., Doya K., Okada G., Ueda K., Okamoto Y., & Yamawaki S. (2016). Prediction of immediate and future rewards differentially recruitscortico-basal ganglia loops. Nature Neuroscience, 7(8), 887-893.
[42] Thomson, P., & Jaque, S. V. (2017). Neurobiology, creativity, and performing artists. In P. Thomson & S. V. Jaque (Eds.), Creativity and the performing artist(pp. 79-102). Academic Press
[43] Villarreal M. F., Cerquetti D., Caruso S., LópezAranguren V. S., Gerschcovich E. R., Frega A. L., & Leiguarda R. C. (2013). Neural correlates of musical creativity: Differences between high and low creative subjects. PLoS ONE, 8(9), e75427.
[44] Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. Harcourt, Brace & World Inc.
[45] Ward T. B., Finke R. A., & Smith, S. M. (1995). Creativity and the mind: Discovering the genius within Plenum Press Discovering the genius within. Plenum Press.
[46] Yang Y. H., Dai B. H., Howell P., Wang X. L., Li K. C., & Lu C. M. (2014). White and grey matter changes in the language network during healthy aging. PLoS ONE, 9(9), e108077.
[47] Zaidel, D. W. (2013). Split-brain, the right hemisphere, and art: Fact and fiction. Progress in Brain Research, 204, 3-17.
[48] Zeki, S. (2001). Artistic creativity and the brain. Science, 293(5527), 51-52.