White matter correlates of creative cognition in a normal cohort

Abstract

Creative cognition, as measured through divergent thinking (DT), offers insight into one’s ability to generate novel ideas. Relatively little work has been done exploring the relationship between creative idea generation tasks and white matter integrity via fractional anisotropy (FA). Our previous work has shown that higher scores on DT tasks were related to reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) within the left hemisphere anterior thalamic radiation (Jung et al., 2010). However, Takeuchi et al., 2010, found positive correlations with FA and DT tasks in the prefrontal cortex and genu of the corpus callosum. The present study assessed subjects studying or working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM; N ​= ​178) for correlations in white matter FA, as related to a measure of DT. Healthy normal subjects aged (16–32 years, mean age ​= ​22.0 ​± ​3.8; F ​= ​89/178). Three idea generation DT measures were scored by three raters (α ​= ​0.71) using the consensual assessment technique, from which a composite creativity index (CCI) was derived. We found that CCI was inversely related to FA (all p ​< ​0.05, controlling for age, sex, and full scale intelligence, and corrected for multiple comparisons using family wise error), within the left hemisphere inferior frontal gyrus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, cingulate gyrus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and right hemisphere uncinate fasciculus. These results are consistent with our previous findings, implicating lower FA in white matter regions linking broad cortical networks, now established in a much larger sample of normal healthy subjects. Editor highlights: • Replication and extension study of divergent thinking and diffusion of fractional anisotropy. • Divergent thinking ability was assessed through a composite measure of three divergent thinking tasks in a STEM sample. • Decreased FA was correlated with higher scores on DT tasks, partially replicating findings in an larger, independent, sample. • Reduced FA was found within multiple white matter pathways, including right uncinate fasciculus and the left cingulum gyrus. • Decreased FA in frontal WM regions may facilitate creative cognition via decreased inhibition or increased reaction times.