A new article written in collaboration between researchers from Panasonic Holdings Co., Ltd. and a research team from the Institute for the Future of Human Society (Prof Nobuhito Abe, Associate Prof Masataka Nakayama, and Prof Yukiko Uchida) has been published in Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society.

The paper investigated the neural basis of two elements of creativity: “convergent thinking” and “divergent thinking.” The results of an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) experiment revealed that convergent thinking primarily activated the insular and frontal cortex, indicating the involvement of high cognitive load and executive functions. On the other hand, divergent thinking activated brain regions such as the left precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex, left parahippocampal gyrus, and left angular gyrus, which are associated with language and long-term memory retrieval. These findings suggest that the psychological processes involved in convergent and divergent thinking are supported by distinct neural foundations.

To learn more and read the article, please follow this link.

Reference:

Ohno, Y., Tominaga, H., Anzue-Satoi, N., Nakata, M., Yanagawa, H., Korenaga, T., Uchida, Y., Nakayama, M., & Abe, S. (2025). fMRI を用いた収束／拡散的思考時の脳活動計測. 認知科学, 32(1), 56–69. https://doi.org/10.11225/cs.2024.054