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Brain activity sensitive to visual congruency effects relates to divergent thinking.

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Focused attention, measured by a smaller congruency effect, correlated with brain activity in the anterior superior temporal gyrus and precuneus. Better divergent thinking was linked to more focused attention.

Keywords:
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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Focused attention is crucial for cognitive tasks.
  • Its role in creativity and divergent thinking requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural correlates of focused attention using fMRI.
  • To examine the relationship between focused attention, divergent thinking, and real-life creativity.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
  • Participants performed a Navon task to assess focused attention via the behavioral congruency effect.
  • Brain activation patterns were analyzed in relation to task performance and creativity measures.

Main Results:

  • A larger behavioral congruency effect (indicating less focused attention) was associated with increased activation in the anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG) and left precuneus.
  • Individual differences in divergent thinking correlated with a smaller congruency effect and reduced right aSTG activation, suggesting enhanced focused attention in high performers.
  • Real-world creativity did not show a significant association with the congruency effect or related brain regions.

Conclusions:

  • Focused attention, indexed by the congruency effect, involves specific neural networks including the aSTG and precuneus.
  • Enhanced focused attention may underpin superior performance in divergent thinking tasks.
  • The current findings do not support a direct link between focused attention, as measured here, and real-world creativity.