Complex cognitive processes, like creative thinking, rely on interactions among multiple neurocognitive processes to generate effective and innovative behaviors on demand, for which the brain’s connector hubs play a crucial role. However, the unique contribution of specific hub sets to creative thinking is unknown. Employing three functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets (total N = 1,911), we demonstrate that connector hub sets are organized in a hierarchical manner based on diversity, with “control-default hubs”—which combine regions from the frontoparietal control and default mode networks—positioned at the apex. Specifically, control-default hubs exhibit the most diverse resting-state connectivity profiles and play the most substantial role in facilitating interactions between regions with dissimilar neurocognitive functions, a phenomenon we refer to as “diverse functional interaction”. Critically, we found that the involvement of control-default hubs in facilitating diverse functional interaction robustly relates to creativity, explaining both task-induced functional connectivity changes and individual creative performance. Our findings suggest that control-default hubs drive diverse functional interaction in the brain, enabling complex cognition, including creative thinking. We thus uncover a biologically plausible explanation that further elucidates the widely reported contributions of certain frontoparietal control and default mode network regions in creativity studies.
- Award ID(s):
- 1920653
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10285666
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Cerebral Cortex
- ISSN:
- 1047-3211
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWV_5o8wB5g .Research Highlights Most executive jobs are prospected to be obsolete within several decades, so creative skills are seen as essential for the near future.
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