Neural Correlates of Insight Solutions

1
Neural Correlates of Insight Solutions Lisa
Aziz-Zadeh, Jonas Kaplan, Marco
Iacoboni Tennenbaum Family Creativity Initiative
Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping
Center University of Los Angeles, California
Background
Psychologists site three general categories of
problem solving search, insight, and memory
retrieval. Insight solutions, also commonly
called aha moments, are thought to strongly
differ in their cognitive process. Aha moments
are also how people in creative fields commonly
describe their insights to occur. By
understanding the neural correlates of the aha
moment, the aim is to understand the neural
correlates of a creative solution to a given
problem.
Results
Behavioral Task
In a behavioral experiment, Novick and Sherman
(2003) documented that anagrams were unique in
that they could yield both insight and search
solutions in expert participants. These solutions
could also be elicited within a few seconds. The
insight strategies were significantly faster than
the search strategies. Thus using latency and a
self-report measure, the experimenters were able
to determine which strategy the participant was
using in a particular trial. Using a
single-trial fMRI paradigm, the current study
utilizes the anagram task to explore the neural
correlates of search versus pop-out strategies.

• For aha search solutions, the left hemisphere
  Brocas area is activated throughout the task
• For the aha solution, the right hemisphere
  Brocas area is activated immediately and remains
  active throughout the task
• This bilateral activation might reflect
  increased interhemispheric connectivity which may
  be important for insight solutions
• Other areas showing differential activation are
  displayed on the right panel, and also prefrontal
  areas (below)

Methods
Discussion
Participants12 normal right handers, who on a
pretest were rated as expert anagram
solvers. fMRIImages were acquired using a
Siemens Allegra 3.0 T MRI scanner. Each
functional run involved the acquisition of 186
BOLD-weighted echo-planar volumes (TR 2000, TE
25, flip angle 90), each with 36 transverse
slices, 3mm thick, 1 mm gap, and a 64 x 64 matrix
yielding an in-plane resolution of 3 mm x 3 mm.
Each participant completed 4 functional runs.
Data AnalysisWe used FLIRT to register each
persons functional data to the MNI-152 atlas
space. The average BOLD signal at each time point
following stimulus presentation was compared to
the average BOLD signal at stimulus onset. Data
were linearly interpolated to sub-second
resolution and t-maps were produced for each
timepoint which represent the change in signal
from the start of the trial.

• Insight solutions may involve interhemispheric
  interaction
• For insight solutions, the right hemisphere may
  provide alternate, more flexible solutions to a
  given problem and/or provide a gestalt
  representation
• The prefrontal areas may provide increased
  organizational for the problem solving, while
  some of the subcortical activations may be
  involved with the affect associated with insight

Acknowledgements We thank Stephen Wilson for his
assistance with this study, and the Tennenbaum
Family Creativity Initiative for funding this
project.
For reprints please email lsa_at_ucla.edu