The unity and diversity of verbal and visuospatial creativity: Dynamic changes in hemispheric lateralisation.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional resting-state fMRI study; level assigned by design analogy for non-clinical neuroscience research.
PubMed 37772359 · doi:10.1002/hbm.26494
What was done
Investigators calculated a dynamic lateralisation index using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data. They applied sparse canonical correlation analysis to evaluate shared and domain-specific hemispheric lateralization patterns associated with verbal and visuospatial creativity.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values, effect sizes, or test statistics. Qualitatively, dynamic laterality reversal in the default mode network, fronto-parietal network, cingulo-opercular network, and visual network contributed significantly to both verbal and visuospatial creativity. In contrast, verbal creativity relied more heavily on the language network, whereas visuospatial creativity relied more on the somatomotor network.
Why it matters
This work indicates that verbal and visuospatial creative processes share dynamic network-level lateralization dynamics for core creative cognition while recruiting distinct domain-specific sensory and language systems.
Limits
The abstract does not disclose participant sample size, demographics, behavioral creativity assessment methods, or quantitative effect sizes. The observational resting-state fMRI design cannot establish causal relationships between dynamic lateralization changes and creative performance.
Cited by
- contradicts Engaging in creative activities such as playing music or painting uses the opposite hemisphere/side of the brain compared to analytical thinking.