Hippocampal-prefrontal orchestration supports higher-order learning for creative ideation

We learn not just to remember, but also to create. Yet, the neurocognitive foundations by which higher-order learning fosters subsequent creation remain elusive. After verifying the facilitating effects of creative exemplar-learning on subsequent creation, this study identified hippocampal and prefrontal encoding patterns during exemplar-learning that predict higher (HSC) or lower (LSC) subsequent creation. The HSC condition was characterized by reduced hippocampal representational dimensionality and increased hippocampal-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) connectivity-effects independent of exemplar memory and consistent across textual and pictorial exemplar materials. Cross-phase analyses revealed that low-dimensional hippocampal and full-dimensional vlPFC representations transferred more effectively from learning to creating in HSC trials. Moreover, cross-phase decoding function in the vlPFC for discriminating HSC from LSC trials relied on low-dimensional hippocampal representations during learning. Together, these findings show that hippocampal-vlPFC orchestration abstracts and transfers exemplar information to support creativity, revealing a neurocognitive mechanism of higher-order learning distinct from memory acquisition.