Investigation of dynamical brain states underlying linguistic/spatial creative insight

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K12620
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 90030:Cognitive science-related
• Research Institution: Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International
• Principal Investigator: Ogawa Takeshi 株式会社国際電気通信基礎技術研究所, 脳情報通信総合研究所, 主任研究員 (10614323)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 創造性 / 問題解決 / 機能的磁気共鳴画像法 / 統計的因果解析 / 状態遷移推定 / 介入 / 行動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aimed to postulate the brain dynamics from brain activity related with 'creative insight' involved in everyday problem solving, and conducted the development of a methodology for measuring brain activity during verbal and spatial insight problem solving task and for extracting their brain states. Specifically, we conducted an investigation of a relationship between cognitive function and problem-solving ability, brain activity measurement during verbal and spatial insight problem tasks, intervention experiments to induce reproducible problem-solving behavior, and development of a quantitative analysis method for large-scale brain networks. As a result, it was suggested that problem-solving by insight is a different brain states from analytical or intuitive problem-solving.

Free Research Field

神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、非常に稀な頻度でしか観測することができない「ひらめき」による問題解決につながる脳状態の時間的変遷を理解するだけでなく、再現性の高いひらめくために必要な条件・環境について示唆する結果が得られた。これは、問題解決のように、高次で複雑な認知機能を客観的に調査するための実験法を提供するだけでなく、実生活においても活用できる可能性を示した。教育機関や企業において、問題解決を必要とする場において役立つことが期待される。