Journal
CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 18, Issue 4, Pages 210-216Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01638.x
Keywords
Aha! moment; creativity; EEG; fMRI; insight; neuroimaging; problem solving
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A sudden comprehension that solves a problem, reinterprets a situation, explains a joke, or resolves an ambiguous percept is called an insight (i.e., the Aha! moment). Psychologists have studied insight using behavioral methods for nearly a century. Recently, the tools of cognitive neuroscience have been applied to this phenomenon. A series of studies have used electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural correlates of the Aha! moment and its antecedents. Although the experience of insight is sudden and can seem disconnected from the immediately preceding thought, these studies show that insight is the culmination of a series of brain states and processes operating at different time scales. Elucidation of these precursors suggests interventional opportunities for the facilitation of insight.
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