Aims
Creativity is widely recognized as an essential skill for entrepreneurial success and adaptation to daily-life demands. However, we know little about the neural changes associated with creative capacity. We are actively involved in doing a series of studies to better understand:
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how creativity is manifested in the brain
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can we enhance creativity using design-thinking based training
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how the neural activity changes with creative capacity enhancement
Highlights
- We found that creativity can be enhanced using targetted d.school based training (2 hrs/wk for 5 wks)
- We developed a novel game-like fMRI paradigm to study creative capacity using the social-game of Pictionary
- Longitudinal analysis revealed reduced prefrontal engagement was associated with enhanced improvisational creativity
- Heightened creative capacity was also associated with increased functional connectivity between cerebral-cerebellar regions (esp. prefrontal-cerebellum)
Press
Funding
Hasso-Plattner Design Thinking Research Program (HPDTRP) Grant to Dr. Allan Reiss .
Papers from this project
Changes in Brain Activation Associated with Spontaneous Improvization and Figural Creativity After Design-Thinking-Based Training: A Longitudinal fMRI Study
Saggar M., Quintin E-M, Bott N., Kienitz E., Chien Y.H., Hong D.W.C., Liu N., Royalty A., Hawthorne G., Reiss A.L. Cerebral Cortex (2017)
Saggar M., Quintin E-M, Bott N., Kienitz E., Chien Y.H., Hong D.W.C., Liu N., Royalty A., Hawthorne G., Reiss A.L. Cerebral Cortex (2017)
Pictionary-based fMRI paradigm to study the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity
Saggar M., Quintin E.-M., Kienitz E., Bott N. T., Sun Z., Hong D.W.C., Chien Y.H., Liu N., Dougherty R.F., Royalty A., Hawthorne G., Reiss A.L. Scientific Reports (2015)
Saggar M., Quintin E.-M., Kienitz E., Bott N. T., Sun Z., Hong D.W.C., Chien Y.H., Liu N., Dougherty R.F., Royalty A., Hawthorne G., Reiss A.L. Scientific Reports (2015)
Targeted intervention to increase creative capacity and performance: A randomized controlled pilot study
Kienitz E., Quintin E.-M., Saggar M., Bott N., Royalty A., Hong D. W.C., Liu N., Chien Y.H., Hawthorne G., Reiss A.L. Thinking Skills & Creativity (2014)
Kienitz E., Quintin E.-M., Saggar M., Bott N., Royalty A., Hong D. W.C., Liu N., Chien Y.H., Hawthorne G., Reiss A.L. Thinking Skills & Creativity (2014)
Creativity training enhances goal-directed attention and information processing
Bott N., Quintin E.-M., Saggar M., Kienitz E., Royalty A., Hong D. W.C., Liu N., Chien Y.H., Hawthorne G., Reiss A.L. Thinking Skills & Creativity (2014)
Bott N., Quintin E.-M., Saggar M., Kienitz E., Royalty A., Hong D. W.C., Liu N., Chien Y.H., Hawthorne G., Reiss A.L. Thinking Skills & Creativity (2014)