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Subcortical structures and visual divergent thinking: a resting-state functional MRI analysis

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Abstract

An increasing number of studies have found that a few, specific subcortical regions are involved in creative visual divergent thinking. In addition, creative thinking is heavily reliant on the fronto-striatal dopaminergic pathways. This study aimed to explore whether spontaneous fluctuations in the subcortex, which contribute to our creative abilities, showed significant differences between individuals with different levels of creativity based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. We calculated subcortical regions’ seed-wise and dynamic functional connectivity (dFC), and then examined the differences between the high and low visual creativity groups. Furthermore, the topological properties of the subcortical network were measured, and their relationship with creative visual divergent thinking was calculated using brain–behavior correlation analyses. The results showed that functional connectivity (FC) between the putamen, pallidum, and thalamus indicated group differences within the subcortex. Whole-brain FC results showed group differences across subcortical (i.e., the thalamus and pallidum) and cerebral regions (i.e., the insula, middle frontal gyrus, and middle temporal gyrus). In addition, subcortical FC demonstrated a positive correlation with visual divergent thinking scores across the pallidum, putamen, and thalamus. Our findings provide novel insights into the relationship between visual divergent thinking and the activities of the subcortex. It is likely that not only fronto-striatal dopaminergic pathways, but also “motor” pathways, are involved in creative visual divergent thinking processing.

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Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by the ECNU Academic Innovation Promotion Program for Excellent Doctoral Students (YBNLTS2019-027) to ZG.

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Author notes

  1. Zhenni Gao and Xiaojin Liu contributed equally to this paper and both should be considered as first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, No. 3663, North Zhong Shan Road, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Zhenni Gao & Ning Hao

  2. Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

    Delong Zhang & Ming Liu

  3. Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Xiaojin Liu

  4. Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7, Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany

    Xiaojin Liu

  5. Center for Educational Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, Zhuhai, 519087, China

    Xiaojin Liu

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  1. Zhenni Gao
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  2. Xiaojin Liu
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Contributions

ZG, XL, DZ, ML, and NH conceived the experiment. ZG, XL, and DZ performed the research. XL, and ZG analyzed the data. ZG, XL, and NH wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Ning Hao.

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Gao, Z., Liu, X., Zhang, D. et al. Subcortical structures and visual divergent thinking: a resting-state functional MRI analysis. Brain Struct Funct 226, 2617–2627 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02355-z

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