Research Statement, Strategies, and Plans - September 2025

The role of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in influencing creative thinking has been investigated by many researchers who, while succeeding in proving an effective involvement of PFC, reported suggestive but sometimes conflicting results. In order to better understand the relationships between creative thinking and brain activation in a more specific area of the PFC, we explored the role of dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC). We devised an experimental protocol using transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS). The study was based on a 3 (kind of stimulation: anodal vs. cathodal vs. sham)  2 (priming: divergent vs. convergent) design. Forty-five healthy adults were randomly assigned to one stimulation condition. Participants’ creativity skills were assessed using the Product Improvement subtest from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). After 20 min of tDCS stimulation, participants were presented with visual images of common objects. Half of the participants were instructed to visualize themselves using the object in an unusual way (divergent priming), whereas the other half were asked to visualize themselves while using the object in a common way (convergent priming). Priming was aimed at inducing participants to adopt different attitudes toward the creative task. Afterwards, participants were asked to describe all of the possible uses of the objects that were presented. Participants’ physiological activation was recorded using a biofeedback equipment. Results showed a significant effect of anodal stimulation that enhanced creative performance, but only after divergent priming. Participants showed lower skin temperature values after cathodal stimulation, a finding which is coherent with studies reporting that, when a task is not creative or creative thinking is not prompted, people show lower levels of arousal. Differences in individual levels of creativity as assessed by the Product Improvement test were not influential. The involvement of DLPFC in creativity has been supported, presumably in association to shift of attention modulated by priming.

Senses and Sciences, 2019

The link between arts and brain is reported, describing the relationship between several brain area and the artistic behavior, the modifications of the art performances following pathologic conditions, art performed by mentally disabled patients as an instrument of communications and rehabilitation, and finally the example of Stendhal syndrome as a condition in which arts may stimulate brain, in susceptible subjects, leading to physical and psychological disturbances.

2010

As a culture, we have the capacity to lead creative lives. Part of that capacity lies in how something like music can touch on just about every aspect of human thinking and experience. If music is such a pervasive phenomenon, what does it mean for the way we consider our lives in health? There are three problems with connecting the richness of music to scientifically valid clinical interventions. First, it is unclear how to provide access to something as seemingly complex as music to a diverse group of subjects with various cognitive and physical deficits. Second, it is necessary to quantify what takes place in music interactions so that causality can be attributed to what is unique to the music experience compared to motivation or attention. Finally, one must provide the structure to facilitate clinical change without losing the communicative and expressive power of

The genesis of a powerful method for Intrinsic Sensory Integration able to maximize results in performance and rehabilitation. ​ 'To what extent can our mind, thoughts, mental images and language influence the matter of our body, through the fascinating connections existing in our nervous system? To what extent is our nervous system plastic and able to rewire - and heal - itself? How can we make possible the impossible? Step by step, I will take you through the case of Claudio, a young man determined to improve his conditions 15 years after the accident that made him a quadriplegic, and you will become part of an amazing journey. This journey offers a way to learn the secrets of the sensory-motor imagery training that led Claudio to recover some of his lost functions. A training which is revealing its great potential day after day, both in movement re-education and in the performing arts - as well as the athletics field."

"Anecdotally, the history of creative thought is rife with inspiration of a nonverbal nature. Perhaps this is most obvious of music and the visual arts, but nonverbal creative processes are documented in most domains. Eugene Ferguson, a chronicler of innovation, noted in an article written for Science, “Much of the creative thought of the designers of our technological world is nonverbal, not easily reducible to words; its language is an object or a picture or a visual image in the mind” (1977, p. 835). Prominent thinkers themselves often reinforce the idea that creative thought can take place outside of language processes. In a letter written to Jacques Hadamard, Einstein articulated this view clearly: “Words and language, whether written or spoken, do not seem to play an important part in my thought processes. The psychological entities that serve as building blocks for my thought are certain signs or images, more or less clear, that I can reproduce and recombine at will” (Hadamard, 1945, p.142). Nonverbal processes are often considered central to the creative process. Finke (1990) showed that people who mentally combined visual forms were able to generate ideas for inventions and discoveries in a wide variety of domains. Rothenberg and Sobel (1980) linked the overlapping of visual imagery to enhanced originality of metaphors. From the arts to technological innovation to mathematics and physics, the creative process is often nonverbal. In this context, an accumulating body of evidence on the effects of verbalization on cognition may demand that it be incorporated into creative cognition research. Recent research has shown that putting one’s thoughts to words might very well impede access to the full complexity of nonverbal thought. In recent years, verbal overshadowing (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990) has been investigated in the various contexts of perceptual memory (i.e., sights, sounds, tastes etc.; Dodson, Johnson, & Schooler, 1997; Fallshore & Schooler, 1995; Melcher & Schooler, 2004; Perfect, Hunt, & Harris, 2002; Vanags, Carroll, & Perfect, 2005), problem solving (Schooler, Ohlsson, & Brooks, 1993), analogical reasoning (Lane & Schooler, 2004; Sieck, Quinn, & Schooler, 1999), spatial mental models (Fiore & Schooler, 2002) and skilled motor performance (Flegal & Anderson, 2008). These studies indicate that verbalization can significantly impair (overshadow) performance on tasks that rely on nonverbal thought processes by biasing cognition towards thoughts that are easily put into words. However, research has also shown instances where verbalization can facilitate performance on tasks that rely heavily on verbalizable information, such as declarative memory tasks and analytic problem solving (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). A preliminary look at these studies suggests that the positive or negative effects of verbalization are highly dependent on the demands of the task at hand. In general, this research is helping to clarify the broader effects that verbalization may have on cognitive processing, thus rendering it applicable to current models of creative thinking. "

This article provides an overview of the main tendencies and ideas in the embodied mind paradigm in the expanding field of modern cognitive science. The focus is not on the biological and neurological aspects of cognitive science, rather the article demonstrates how basic concepts and theories from cognitive science have influenced linguistics, sociology, the understanding of art and creativity, film and film perception, as well as our understanding of historical film narratives and mediated memories. Although these areas of humanities and social science may seem unrelated, this article demonstrates how the embodied mind paradigm has actually forged links between separate scientific disciplines. Cognitive science and the embodied mind theory have created a stronger interdisciplinary connection between cognitive understanding in social science and humanities. Metaphors and image schema, the way our brain relies on narrative structures, the dynamic ability of the brain to blend old and new schemas, and the unparalleled creativity of the brain are all part of the approaches of the cognitive social science and humanities to social interaction, communication and creativity described here. The article also discusses the relationship between the more universal dimensions of the human mind and the question of cultural and social variations. The argument here is that a cognitive and more universal theory of human beings is not the same as determinism. On the contrary, when we understand our universal com-monalities and the basic functions of our embodied mind we will also be better placed to understand cultural and social differences and variations.

2018

Creativity, meant as the ability to produce novel, original and suitable ideas, has received increased attention by research in the last years, especially from neuroaesthetics and social neuroscience. Besides the research conducted on the neural correlates of such capacities, previous work tried to answer the question of whether it is possible to enhance creativity through cognitive and neural stimulation. In particular, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been applied to increase neuronal excitability in those areas related to creativity. However, being a complex construct that applies to a huge variety of situations, available results are often confusing and inconsistent. Thus, in the present critical review, after selecting original research articles investigating creativity with tDCS, results will be reviewed and framed according to the different effects of tDCS and its underlying mechanisms, which can be defined as follows: the promotion of self-focused attention; the disruption of inhibiting mechanisms; the enhancement of creative thinking; the promotion of artistic enactment. Finally, a theoretical perspective, the creative on/off model, will be provided to integrate the reported evidence with respect to both anatomical and functional issues and propose a cognitive explanation of the emergence of creative thinking. Creativity has been defined by some scholars as humankind's ultimate resource (Toynbee, 1964). It is traditionally considered a mere outcome of an individual's genius, a gift, and a personality trait. Consequently, the interpretation that emerged in relation to this topic tended to consider creativity as something given without a reason, even genetically predetermined, and thus far from objective and systematic comprehension (Batey and Furnham, 2006). However, such ideas deal only with the first of the four points that Rhodes (1987) suggested for a complete framing of creativity. According to his proposal, it is possible to conceptualize creativity on the importance given to: (a) the person who creates; (b) the cognitive processes involved in the creation of ideas; (c) the environment in which creativity occurs; and (d) the outcome of the creative activity. Besides the specific focus on these different contributions to the phenomenon, it is also important to consider the multifaceted expressions of creativity, from artistic enactment, to scientific progress, and to problem-solving. Therefore, although there is a great interest dedicated to this issue, it is still difficult to define and study creativity in a comprehensive way. The most accepted definition that can be easily applied to all contexts proposes a double requirement for creativity: originality and usefulness (Barron, 1955). Moreover, different perspectives proposed creativity Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org

Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement, 2008

NeuroImage, 2020

Neurocognitive research is pertinent to developing mechanistic models of how humans generate creative thoughts. Such models usually overlook the role of the motor cortex in creative thinking. The framework of embodied or grounded cognition suggests that creative thoughts (e.g. using a shoe as a hammer, improvising a piano solo) are partially served by simulations of motor activity associated with tools and their use. The major hypothesis stemming from the embodied or grounded account is that, while the motor system is used to execute actions, simulations within this system also support higher-order cognition, creativity included. That is, the cognitive process of generating creative output, not just executing it, is deeply embedded in motor processes. Here, we highlight a collection of neuroimaging research that implicates the motor system in generating creative thoughts, including some evidence for its functionally necessary role in generating creative output. Specifically, the grounded or embodied framework suggests that generating creative output may, in part, rely on motor simulations of possible actions, and that these simulations may by partially implemented in the motor regions themselves. In such cases, action simulations (i.e. reactivating or re-using the motor system), do not result in overt action but instead are used to support higher-order cognitive goals like generating creative uses or improvising.

CognitLve research on creativity is both traditional and innovative. It is traditwnal in the sense that many of the well-recognized processes, structures, and stores from mainstream cognitive psyclwlogy ha1•e been used to understand creatil•e thinking. It is innovative because there is a need to understand processes which are not recognized unless one is specifically interested in creativity. Some of these are inherently subjective, a fact which is often disregarded by those hoping for a traditionally scientific analysis. Still, much of the interest in the cognitive sciences concerns how new constructs come into being; and anyone interested in that is in fact thinking about creativity.