A New Measure of Imagination Ability: Anatomical Brain Imaging Correlates

Using imagination in response to stress and uncertainty in the time of COVID-19: further validation of the Fantastic Reality Ability Measurement (FRAME) Scale

Fantastic reality ability (FRA) is defined as the capacity to use imagination in response to stress or trauma. With the emergence of COVID-19 and associated social restrictions, there has been an uptick in imagination use as a coping strategy. This has allowed us to further validate the Fantastic Reality Ability Measurement (FRAME) Scale at this time of stress and uncertainty. Initial exploratory factor analyses (EFA) suggested that FRAME responses are measured by four first-order factors. Using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), this study set out to confirm this finding and to ascertain if: First-order factors are correlated; or map onto a second or higher-order, fantastic reality ability latent construct. Also, FRAME responses are compared to established scales to demonstrate concurrent and discriminant validity. In accord with previous research and theory, CFA results indicate that each four factors (coping, control, transcendence, playfulness), contribute significantly to the measurement of a higher-order FRA latent construct (N = 437 Israeli adults). We also report robust correlations between FRAME and measures of resiliency and imagination abilities of complexity, directedness and frequency. Both adaptive and maladaptive applications of imagination use in relation to stress are discussed with focus on those who could foster resiliency. The FRAME enables one to briefly measure imagination use in response to stress and could serve as part of questionnaire batteries measuring individual differences and clinical research. Future research should assess the stability of this instrument across different populations over extended periods, specifically those at risk for trauma.

A Supervised Machine Learning Approach to Classify Brain Morphology of Professional Visual Artists versus Non-Artists

This study aimed to investigate whether there are structural differences in the brains of professional artists who received formal training in the visual arts and non-artists who did not have any formal training or professional experience in the visual arts, and whether these differences can be used to accurately classify individuals as being an artist or not. Previous research using functional MRI has suggested that general creativity involves a balance between the default mode network and the executive control network. However, it is not known whether there are structural differences between the brains of artists and non-artists. In this study, a machine learning method called Multi-Kernel Learning (MKL) was applied to gray matter images of 12 artists and 12 non-artists matched for age and gender. The results showed that the predictive model was able to correctly classify artists from non-artists with an accuracy of 79.17% (AUC 88%), and had the ability to predict new cases with an accuracy of 81.82%. The brain regions most important for this classification were the Heschl area, amygdala, cingulate, thalamus, and parts of the parietal and occipital lobes as well as the temporal pole. These regions may be related to the enhanced emotional and visuospatial abilities that professional artists possess compared to non-artists. Additionally, the reliability of this circuit was assessed using two different classifiers, which confirmed the findings. There was also a trend towards significance between the circuit and a measure of vividness of imagery, further supporting the idea that these brain regions may be related to the imagery abilities involved in the artistic process.

Magnetoencephalography Hyperscanning Evidence of Differing Cognitive Strategies Due to Social Role During Auditory Communication

Auditory communication is an essential form of human social interaction. However, the intra-brain cortical-oscillatory drivers of auditory communication exchange remain relatively unexplored. We used improvisational music performance to simulate and capture the creativity and turn-taking dynamics of natural auditory communication. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) hyperscanning in musicians, we targeted brain activity during periods of music communication imagery, and separately analyzed theta (5–7 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), and beta (15–29 Hz) source-level activity using a within-subjects, two-factor approach which considered the assigned social role of the subject (leader or follower) and whether communication responses were improvisational (yes or no). Theta activity related to improvisational communication and social role significantly interacted in the left isthmus cingulate cortex. Social role was furthermore differentiated by pronounced occipital alpha and beta amplitude increases suggestive of working memory retention engagement in Followers but not Leaders. The results offer compelling evidence for both musical and social neuroscience that the cognitive strategies, and correspondingly the memory and attention-associated oscillatory brain activities of interlocutors during communication differs according to their social role/hierarchy, thereby indicating that social role/hierarchy needs to be controlled for in social neuroscience research.

Subcortical contributions to higher cognitive function in tumour patients undergoing awake craniotomy

Primary brain tumours often occur near eloquent regions, affecting language, motor and memory capacity, with awake mapping and tailored resection designed to preserve higher cognitive functioning. The effects of such tumours on subcortical structures, including the thalamus and basal ganglia, have been largely unexplored, in spite of the known importance of such structures to higher cognitive functioning. We sought to explore the effects of volume changes of subcortical structures on cognition, in 62 consecutive patients diagnosed with primary brain tumour and cavernous malformations, referred to our neurosurgical practice. We found right caudate to be highly predictive of intelligence, left pallidum of total neuropsychological function and right hippocampus of mood. Our study is the largest of its kind in exploring subcortical substrates of higher cognition in consecutive patients with brain tumours. This research supports prior literature, showing subcortical structures to be related to higher cognitive functioning, particularly measures of memory and executive functioning implicated in fronto-subcortical circuits. Furthermore, involvement of right mesial temporal structures in mood, further strengthens the central role of Papez circuit in emotional quality of cognition. Attention to subcortical integrity is likely to be important in discussing postsurgical cognitive outcome with patients and their families.

Default network contributions to episodic and semantic processing during divergent creative thinking: A representational similarity analysis

Cognitive and neuroimaging evidence suggests that episodic and semantic memory-memory for autobiographical events and conceptual knowledge, respectively-support different aspects of creative thinking, with a growing number of studies reporting activation of brain regions within the default network during performance on creative thinking tasks. The present research sought to dissociate neural contributions of these memory processes by inducing episodic or semantic retrieval orientations prior to performance on a divergent thinking task during fMRI. We conducted a representational similarity analysis (RSA) to identify multivoxel patterns of neural activity that were similar across induction (episodic and semantic) and idea generation. At the behavioral level, we found that semantic induction was associated with increased idea originality, assessed via computational estimates of semantic distance between concepts. RSA revealed that multivoxel patterns during semantic induction and subsequent idea generation were more similar (compared to episodic induction) within the left angular gyrus (AG), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and left anterior inferior parietal lobe (IPL). Conversely, activity patterns during episodic induction and subsequent generation were more similar within left parahippocampal gyrus and right anterior IPL. Together, the findings point to dissociable contributions of episodic and semantic memory processes to creative cognition and suggest that distinct regions within the default network support specific memory-related processes during divergent thinking.

Neuroanatomy of creative achievement

Very few studies have investigated neuroanatomical correlates of "everyday" creative achievement in cohorts of normal subjects. In previous research, we first showed that scores on the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ) were associated with lower cortical thickness within the left lateral orbitofrontal gyrus (LOFG), and increased thickness of the right angular gyrus (AG) (Jung et al., 2010). Newer studies found the CAQ to be associated with decreased volume of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and that artistic and scientific creativity was associated with increased and decreased volumes within the executive control network and salience network (Shi et al., 2017). We desired to replicate and extend our previous study in a larger cohort (N ​= ​248), comprised of subjects studying and working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Subjects were young (Range ​= ​16-32; Mean age ​= ​21.8; s.d. ​= ​3.5) all of whom were administered the CAQ, from which we derived artistic and scientific creativity factors. All subjects underwent structural MRI on a 3 ​T scanner from which cortical thickness, area, and volume measures were obtained using FreeSurfer. Our results showed mostly cortical thinning in relation to total, scientific, and artistic creative achievement encompassing many regions involved in the cognitive control network (CCN) and default mode network (DMN).

Attenuating Neural Threat Expression with Imagination

Imagination is an internal simulation of real-life events and a common treatment tool for anxiety disorders; however, the neural processes by which imagination exerts behavioral control are unclear. This investigation tests whether and how imagined exposures to a threatening stimulus, conditioned in the real world, influence neural and physiological manifestations of threat. We found that imagined and real extinction are equally effective in the reduction of threat-related neural patterns and physiological responses elicited upon re-exposure to real-world threatening cues. Network connectivity during the extinction phase showed that imagined, like real, extinction engaged the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) as a central hub. vmPFC, primary auditory cortex, and amygdala activation during imagined and real extinction were predictive of individual differences in extinction success. The nucleus accumbens, however, predicted extinction success in the imagined extinction group alone. We conclude that deliberate imagination can attenuate reactions to threat through perceptual and associative learning mechanisms.

Creative constraints: Brain activity and network dynamics underlying semantic interference during idea production

Functional neuroimaging research has recently revealed brain network interactions during performance on creative thinking tasks-particularly among regions of the default and executive control networks-but the cognitive mechanisms related to these interactions remain poorly understood. Here we test the hypothesis that the executive control network can interact with the default network to inhibit salient conceptual knowledge (i.e., pre-potent responses) elicited from memory during creative idea production. Participants studied common noun-verb pairs and were given a cued-recall test with corrective feedback to strengthen the paired association in memory. They then completed a verb generation task that presented either a previously studied noun (high-constraint) or an unstudied noun (low-constraint), and were asked to "think creatively" while searching for a novel verb to relate to the presented noun. Latent Semantic Analysis of verbal responses showed decreased semantic distance values in the high-constraint (i.e., interference) condition, which corresponded to increased neural activity within regions of the default (posterior cingulate cortex and bilateral angular gyri), salience (right anterior insula), and executive control (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) networks. Independent component analysis of intrinsic functional connectivity networks extended this finding by revealing differential interactions among these large-scale networks across the task conditions. The results suggest that interactions between the default and executive control networks underlie response inhibition during constrained idea production, providing insight into specific neurocognitive mechanisms supporting creative cognition.