Poster #16 - The neurobehavioral relationship between executive function and creativity during early childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Increasing evidence from behavior and neuroimaging research indicates that executive functions (EFs) are related to creativity. Although the role of each EF component remains inconclusive, it has been suggested that flexible modulation of cognitive control plays a crucial role in creative thinking. However, most of these studies focused on adult and adolescent populations. The relationship between EFs and creativity is unknown when EFs undergo rapid development during early childhood, due to the preschoolers’ marginal skills of expressing their ideas, orally or in writing. Using a non-verbal, open-ended test, the present study examined whether creative thinking was related to cognitive flexibility in young children. Preschool children (N = 26) performed the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) and the Unusual Box Test (UBT), while their brain activation was recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We did not find any significant correlation between children’ s cognitive flexibility and creative thinking. However, fNIRS analyses showed that children’s brain activation in the lateral prefrontal regions was significantly greater during the test phases of the UBT than during the rest phases. Additionally, children who strongly recruited their ventrolateral prefrontal regions during the post-switch phases of the DCCS recruited the same regions while performing the UBT. Taken together, these findings suggest that children recruit their lateral prefrontal regions when expressing creative thinking, and that such creative thinking could be partially supported by cognitive flexibility in early childhood.

Authors

• Jue Wang, Kyoto University

• Chifumi Sakata

• Yusuke Moriguchi, Kyoto University
  Presenting Author