Article

Although creativity has been related to prefrontal activity, recent neurological case studies postulate that patients who have left frontal and temporal
degeneration involving deterioration of language abilities may actually develop
de novo artistic abilities. In this study, we propose a neural and cognitive
model according to which a balance between the two hemispheres affects a major
aspect of creative cognition, namely, originality. In order to examine the neural
basis of originality, that is, the ability to produce statistically infrequent
ideas, patients with localized lesions in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC),
inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and posterior parietal and temporal cortex (PC),
were assessed by two tasks involving divergent thinking and originality. Results
indicate that lesions in the mPFC involved the most profound impairment in
originality. Furthermore, precise anatomical mapping of lesions indicated that
while the extent of lesion in the right mPFC was associated with impaired
originality, lesions in the left PC were associated with somewhat elevated levels
of originality. A positive correlation between creativity scores and left PC
lesions indicated that the larger the lesion is in this area the greater the
originality. On the other hand, a negative correlation was observed between
originality scores and lesions in the right mPFC. It is concluded that the right
mPFC is part of a right fronto-parietal network which is responsible for
producing original ideas. It is possible that more linear cognitive processing
such as language, mediated by left hemisphere structures interferes with creative cognition. Therefore, lesions in the left hemisphere may be associated with elevated levels of originality.
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