Researchers identify a brain circuit for creativity

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Brigham researchers analyzed data from 857 patients across 36 fMRI brain imaging studies and mapped a common brain circuit for creativity.
• They derived the circuit in healthy individuals and then predicted which locations of brain injury and neurodegenerative disease might alter creativity.
• The study found that changes in creativity in people with brain injury or neurodegenerative disease may depend on the location of injury in reference to the creativity circuit.

A new study led by researchers at Mass General Brigham suggests that different brain regions activated by creative tasks are part of one common brain circuit. By evaluating data from 857 participants across 36 fMRI studies, researchers identified a brain circuit for creativity and found people with brain injuries or neurodegenerative diseases that affect this circuit may have increased creativity. Their results are published in JAMA Network Open.

“We wanted to answer the questions, ‘What brain regions are key for human creativity and how does this relate to the effects of brain injuries?’” said co-senior author Isaiah Kletenik, MD, a neurologist in the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.

The study was led by Julian Kutsche, MA, first author on the paper, who completed a research fellowship at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, and in collaboration with researchers at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, Boston Children’s Hospital, University College London, University of Georgia, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Charité Berlin.

“We found that many complex human behaviors such as creativity don’t map to a specific brain region but do map to specific brain circuits,” said co-senior author Michael D. Fox, MD, PhD, who founded and leads the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, and helped develop the techniques of coordinate and lesion network mapping employed in this work.

The team first looked at fMRI data to identify brain regions activated by different creative activities such as drawing, creative writing and making music. They then assessed data from patients who had changes in creativity due to brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases.

“Some people with neurologic diseases experience a new onset of creative behavior and show specific patterns of damage that align with our creativity circuit,” Kutsche said.

Kutsche said the most interesting finding to him is that different brain regions activated by creative tasks were all negatively connected to the right frontal pole. This part of your brain, Kutsche says, is important for monitoring and rule-based behaviors.

Kletenik said reduced activity in the right frontal pole could align with the hypothesis that creativity requires shutting down a function. For example, creativity may depend on inhibiting self-censoring assessments that could then allow free association and idea generation to flow more freely. “To be creative you may have to turn off your inner critic to allow yourself to find new directions and even make mistakes.”

“These findings could help explain how some neurodegenerative diseases might lead to decreases in creativity while others may show a paradoxical increase in creativity,” Kletenik said. “It could also potentially add a pathway for brain stimulation to increase human creativity.”

Kletenik said it is important to note that these findings do not represent the entire neural circuitry involved in creativity, adding that many different parts of the brain are involved in completing different creative tasks.

“We are learning more about neurodiversity and how brain changes that are considered pathological may improve function in some ways,” he said. “These findings help us better understand how the circuitry of our brains may influence and unleash creativity.”

Authorship: In addition to Kletenik, Mass General Brigham authors include Michael Fox, Julian Kutsche, Joseph Taylor, Michael Erkkinen, Haya Akkad, Sanaz Khosravani, William Drew, Alexander Li Cohen, and Andreas Horn. Additional authors are Anna Abraham, Derek V.M. Ott, Juliana Wall, and Wolf-Julian Neumann.

Disclosures: Fox has intellectual property on the use of brain connectivity imaging to analyze lesions and guide brain stimulation, has consulted for Magnus Medical, Soterix, Abbott, Boston Scientific, Tal Medical, and has received funds from Neuronetics and Nexstim. 

Funding: Julian Kutsche received support from the German Academic Exchange Service’s Biomedical Education Program. Isaiah Kletenik received support from NIH NINDS L30 NS134024-01. Alexander Li Cohen received support from NIMH (K23MH120510) and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. Joseph Taylor received support from Harvard Medical School (Dupont Warren Fellowship Award, Livingston Award), Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant (31081), Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation, Baszucki Brain Research Fund, and the NIH (K23MH129829, R01MH113929). MDF was supported by grants from the NIH (R01MH113929, R21MH126271, R56AG069086, R21NS123813, R01NS127892), the Kaye Family Research Endowment, the Ellison / Baszucki Family Foundation, and the Manley Family. Julian Kutsche had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Paper cited: Kutsche J. et al. “Creativity and Brain Disease: Mapping Neuroimaging Findings onto a Common Brain Circuit.” JAMA Network Open. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.59297

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