Biology subjects

Moreno-Rodriguez, S.

Publications and source records attributed to Moreno-Rodriguez, S..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

From default to creativity: prefrontal and cerebellar contributions of the default mode network to goal-directed remote thinking

Creativity is a hallmark of human cognition, characterized by the ability to connect seemingly distant concepts or ideas. Existing theories suggest that remote thinking can be achieved either spontaneously (constrained by the structure of semantic memory) or in a goal-directed manner (constrained by a creative goal). The present study investigates the neural correlates of goal-directed remote thinking, defined as the intentional production of semantically distant associations. Using a simple word-to-word association task comprising both a spontaneous condition and a goal-directed creative condition, we investigated Goal-directed Remoteness as the extra semantic distance traveled away from spontaneous responses when instructed to think creatively. Task-based functional MRI in 38 healthy young adults identified brain regions whose activation scaled with Goal-directed Remoteness. The results revealed that activity in the rostromedial and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the right cerebellar Crus I & II was positively modulated by Goal-directed Remoteness. Control analyses confirmed the robustness of these findings independently of the cue-words semantic or linguistic properties. Follow-up seed-based resting-state functional connectivity analyses characterized the intrinsic connectivity profiles of the revealed regions. They showed that rostromedial and dorsomedial prefrontal and cerebellar Crus I & II regions formed a functionally interconnected network primarily overlapping with the default-mode network (DMN). Our findings challenge the traditional view of the DMN as supporting only passive or spontaneous cognition. Instead, they reveal a prefronto-cerebellar DMN subnetwork supporting goal-directed remote thinking, a key component of creative cognition. Within this network, the rostromedial and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and cerebellar Crus I & II play an active role in the intentional generation of connections between distant concepts.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

Neural investigation of idea selection during creative thinking reveals value-based mechanisms

Creative thinking enables humans to innovate and solve problems, via the generation of candidate ideas, their evaluation and the selection of the most promising one. While recent studies have demonstrated that idea evaluation relies on the assignment of subjective values (the assessment of how much one likes an idea, or valuation), the selection mechanism remains unknown. Using behavioral experiments and fMRI, we tested whether the selection step of creative thinking is driven by the same value comparison circuits that guide economic decisions. Participants performed creative idea production, rating, and choice tasks. We found behavioral evidence of value-based comparison during both isolated choice and overall creative idea production, in a manner that predicts creative abilities. Critically, we demonstrate that creative idea selection involves the brain valuation system and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex: during creative thinking, these neural circuits compare candidate idea values, mirroring economic choice. Our findings reveal that idea selection is mediated by the brains generic valuation system, rather than specialized creative machinery, unifying theories of decision-making and creativity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Creativity involves the subjective valuation of ideas via the Brain Valuation System.

Creative thinking is composed of a generation phase, where individuals form candidate ideas, and an evaluation phase, where individuals monitor the quality of their ideas, in terms of both their originality and adequacy, to select the best one. Here, we conceptualize creative evaluation as a specific type of decision-making, where participants attribute subjective values to ideas to guide their choice. Yet, while subjective values and preferences have been the focus of many studies in classical decision-making, their involvement in creative decision-making remains largely unexplored. Combining creative generation tasks and rating tasks, the present study demonstrates that individuals assign subjective values to ideas and that these values depend on a relative balance of the ideas originality and adequacy, which is determined by individual preferences and predicts their creative abilities. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, we found that the human reward system encodes the subjective value of ideas, and that the Default Mode and the Executive Control Networks, rather than being split into idea generation and evaluation, respectively reflect the originality and adequacy of ideas. Interestingly, the relative functional connectivity of the Default Mode and Executive Control Networks with the human reward system correlates with the relative balance of adequacy and originality in individuals preferences. These results bridge a gap in the current literature by providing new evidence regarding the neural bases for originality and adequacy monitoring and add valuation to the incomplete behavioral and neural accounts of creativity, offering perspectives on the influence of individual preferences on creative abilities.

neuroscience↗