Regional gray matter volume of dopaminergic system associate with creativity: evidence from voxel-based morphometry

Creativity has been essential to the development of human civilization and plays a crucial role in cultural life. However, despite a number of functional imaging studies on creativity, the relationship between regional gray matter morphology and creativity has never been investigated in subcortical regions. We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify the gray matter correlates of individual creativity as measured by the divergent thinking test. We found positive correlations between regional gray matter volume and individual creativity in several regions such as the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral striata and in an anatomical cluster which included areas such as the substantia nigra, tegmental ventral area and periaqueductal gray. These findings suggest that individual creativity, as measured by the divergent thinking test, is mainly related to the regional gray matter of brain regions known to be associated with the dopaminergic system, congruent with the idea that dopaminergic physiological mechanisms are associated with individual creativity.