Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wang, Xinyue
• He, Yingyao
• Lu, Kelong
• Deng, Chenglong
• Qiao, Xinuo
• Hao, Ning

Titel

How does the embodied metaphor affect creative thinking?

Ist Teil von

• NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.), 2019-11, Vol.202, p.116114-116114, Article 116114

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This study aimed to explore the neural correlates of the embodied metaphor “breaking the rules” and how it affects creativity by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). To embody the metaphor “breaking the rules,” we created a circumstance in which participants can experience “breaking the walls” through virtual reality (VR) technology. Participants were randomly assigned to three conditions: the “break-wall” condition, where they broke the walls to move forward; the “auto-wall” condition, where the barrier wall opened automatically; and the “no-wall” condition, where no barrier walls appeared. While walking in the virtual scenes, participants were asked to solve a creativity-demanding problem and to wear the fNIRS device to record their neural activities. It was found that participants showed better creative performance in the “break-wall” condition than in the other conditions. Weaker activations were found in the frontopolar cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the somatosensory association cortex under the “break-wall” condition, which may be associated with rule-breaking behaviors, creative performance, and sense of embodiment. These findings may indicate that physical actions of “breaking the wall” activate the conceptual metaphor of “breaking the rules,” which triggers brain activities related to rule-breaking, thus affecting creative performance. •Virtual reality technology was applied to realize the embodiment of “breaking the rules”.•Better creative performance was observed in the “break-wall” condition.•The proportion of novel answers increased more rapidly in the “break-wall” condition.•Deactivation of the frontopolar area, DLPFC and somatosensory association cortex were found in the “break-wall” condition.