Creative Minds Are Out of Control: Mid Frontal Theta and Creative Thinking

Abstract Creativity is considered to be the driving force behind innovation and progress, yet the neural signature of creative thought remains elusive. Recently, creative thinking has been associated with dynamics between large-scale intrinsic neural networks. In the current study, we investigated whether fluctuations of activity in the control network is linked to creative thinking. We designed a ‘caption this’ task in which participants had to provide an original and apt caption to accompany a presented picture while EEG signals were recorded. To assess changing levels of cognitive control we made use of the strong relationship between mid frontal oscillatory activity in the theta range (4-7 HZ) and top-down control. This experimental set-up allowed us to assess the relationship between trial-by-trial changes in neural measures of top-down control and fluctuations in creativity. Results demonstrate that specifically when attention needs to be internally oriented lower levels of top-down control resulted in higher levels of creativity. In addition, increased creativity related to enhanced long-range functional connectivity between occipital and mid frontal cortex when the presented picture was no longer visible. Together, our findings demonstrate that creativity benefits from lower levels of top-down control and enhanced processing of internal information.