Contribution of lesion studies to the neuroscience to creativity

Individual creativity, defined as the ability to achieve a production that is both original and appropriate, results in part from mental operations that may be related to the functioning of the brain. The challenge in this field of research is to understand what these operations are, and what cerebral networks underlie them. Although these questions are not fully elucidated, advances in the neuroscience of creativity have identified different brain networks that support distinct mechanisms of creativity. Recent data from cognitive and functional neuroimaging studies indicate that creativity is based on the interaction between associative thinking likely underpinned by the default mode network and cognitive control processes supported by control-related networks, including fronto-parietal networks. The study of brain-damaged patients made it possible to test this model and to establish a more causal link between the creative processes and these brain networks. The lesion approach has indeed shown the critical role of the default mode network and the left frontoparietal control network in the associative and control processes, respectively, and has identified crucial nodes in these networks. The few lesion studies carried out also suggest functional specialization of the prefrontal cortex for distinct creative processes. In this review, we integrate the results of lesion studies and noninvasive brain stimulation studies with the findings of recent functional imaging studies in healthy subjects to clarify our understanding of the brain mechanisms of creativity. (C) 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.