창의성에 대한 인지신경과학 연구 개관

초록

Creativity refers to the ability to generate novel and useful ideas. Understanding the mechanism of creativity and its enhancement is important in order to solve major problems of the modern society and to improve the wellness of mankind. Creativity is a highly heterogeneous and complex ability which should not be conceptualized as a single entity. Thus, the current literature on creativity is based on a component process approach to creativity. The present study introduces cognitive neuroscience research studying the mechanism of divergent thinking, insight, relational thinking and artistic creativity which are the major components of creativity. Based on an expansive review, the early hypothesis of hemispheric asymmetry emphasizing the importance of the right as opposed to the left hemisphere is not supported by scientific evidence. In addition, there is no consensus or consistency on which specific brain region is related to a certain component of creativity. In fact, there is a mixture of studies reporting involvement of various brain regions across all four lobes of the brain. This inconsistency in the literature most likely reflects heterogeneity of the component processes of creativity and sensitivity of the neural response to differences across tasks and cognitive strategy. The present study introduces examples of representative studies reporting seminal findings on the neural basis and the enhancement of creativity based on innovative methodology. In addition, we discuss limitations of the current cognitive neuroscience approach to creativity and present directions for future research.

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