Biochemical Support for the “Threshold” Theory of Creativity: A Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study

Rex E. Jung; Charles Gasparovic; Robert S. Chavez; Ranee A. Flores; Shirley M. Smith; Arvind Caprihan; Ronald A. Yeo

doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0588-09.2009

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Figure 1.
Sagittal image showing placement of MRSI grid (heavy white line) through supraventricular white and gray matter regions dorsal to the corpus callosum.
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Figure 2.
Axial view of MRSI grid showing individual 0.6 cm3 voxels comprising the eight regions of interest. Image is in radiological convention (left side of image, right hemisphere). Blue, Right anterior white matter; green, right anterior gray matter; yellow, left anterior gray matter; salmon, left anterior white matter; purple, right posterior white matter; light blue, right posterior gray matter; red, left posterior gray matter; tan, left posterior gray matter.
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Figure 3.
Scatter plot of relationships between NAA and CCI in lower and higher VIQ subjects. Top left, Significant relationship (r₂ = 0.28) between CCI and right anterior gray matter in VIQ </= 116; top right, nonsignificant relationship between CCI and left anterior gray matter in VIQ </= 116; lower left, significant relationship (r₂ = 0.15) between CCI and left anterior gray matter in VIQ >116; lower right, nonsignificant relationship between CCI and right anterior gray matter in VIQ >116.

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Table 1.

Demographic variables for the sample

Measure	Mean	SD	t	p
Age	23.83	4.14	0.18	0.86	ns
	24.04	4.38
VIQ	115.53	12.55	0.21	0.84	ns
	116.15	9.72
PIQ	117.70	9.65	0.89	0.38	ns
	115.58	8.26
FSIQ	118.43	11.22	0.27	0.79	ns
	117.73	8.10
Openness	34.50	4.92	1.06	0.29	ns
	36.04	5.77
COWAT	37.23	8.27	0.76	0.45	ns
	39.75	8.12
CCI	95.228	14.59	−2.52	0.015	^*
	105.09	14.51
RAWM	14.61	0.70	1.20	0.23	ns
	14.35	0.85
RAGM	17.64	1.86	2.32	0.024	^*
	16.56	1.60
LAGM	15.83	1.26	1.10	0.28	ns
	16.24	1.45
LAWM	14.01	0.86	0.87	0.39	ns
	14.21	0.83
RPWM	14.34	0.93	0.28	0.78	ns
	14.27	0.84
RPGM	18.84	2.10	3.46	0.001	^***
	17.23	1.34
LPGM	17.50	1.57	1.24	0.22	ns
	17.07	0.97
LPWM	14.07	0.78	0.53	0.60	ns
	14.18	0.78

Upper row, Males; lower row, females. Openness, Openness to experience.
↵*Contrast is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).
↵***Contrast is significant at the 0.001 level (two-tailed).

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Table 2.

Post hoc bivariate Pearson correlations between behavioral measures and spectroscopic measures from eight regions of interest for the entire sample (N = 56)

	COWAT	UOT creativity	Free draw creativity	4 line creativity	UOT fluency	Free draw fluency	4 line fluency
COWAT	1
UOT creativity	*0.27*	1
	*0.05*
Free draw creativity	0.11	*0.35*	1
	ns	*0.007*
4 line creativity	0.22	*0.46*	*0.71*	1
	ns	*0.001*	*0.001*
UOT fluency	−0.06	*0.52*	0.10	0.18	1
	ns	*0.001*	ns	ns
Free draw fluency	−0.13	0.12	*0.40*	*0.26*	0.07	1
	ns	ns	*0.002*	*0.05*	ns
4 line fluency	0.25	0.23	*0.54*	*0.73*	0.14	0.35	1
	ns	ns	*0.001*	*0.001*	ns	ns
RAWM NAA	−0.21	0.15	−0.10	−0.03	0.10	0.14	0.02
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
RPWM NAA	−0.05	0.10	−0.07	0.01	0.03	0.01	0.02
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LAWM NAA	0.01	*0.29*	0.23	0.25	0.08	0.13	0.09
	ns	*0.03*	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LPWM NAA	−0.13	0.17	0.11	0.12	0.17	−0.12	0.03
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
RAGM NAA	−0.16	*−0.26*	−0.21	*−0.32*	−0.23	−0.12	*−0.31*
	ns	*0.05*	ns	*0.02*	ns	ns	*0.02*
RPGM NAA	−0.22	*−0.31*	−0.19	−0.19	−0.09	−0.15	*−0.27*
	ns	*0.02*	ns	ns	ns	ns	*0.04*
LAGM NAA	0.04	0.16	0.23	0.01	−0.09	−0.04	0.12
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LPGM NAA	−0.16	−0.09	0.08	−0.07	0.04	0.05	−0.11
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns

UOT creativity, UOT–judged creativity ratings; Free draw creativity, free drawing task–judged creativity ratings; 4 line creativity, four line drawing task–judged creativity ratings; UOT fluency, UOT–number of responses; Free draw creativity, Free drawing task–number of responses; 4 line creativity, Four line drawing task–number of responses. Values in bold and italic indicate p < 0.05.

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Table 3.

Post hoc bivariate Pearson correlations between behavioral measures and spectroscopic measures from eight regions of interest for subjects with VIQ ≤ 116

	COWAT	UOT creativity	Free draw creativity	4 line creativity	UOT fluency	Free draw fluency	4 line fluency
COWAT	1
UOT creativity	0.17	1
	ns
Free draw creativity	0.01	−0.01	1
	ns	ns
4 line creativity	0.25	0.15	*0.72*	1
	ns	ns	*0.001*
UOT fluency	−0.02	*0.54*	−0.06	0.06	1
	ns	*0.005*	ns	ns
Free draw fluency	−0.05	−0.06	*0.42*	0.23	−0.02	1
	ns	ns	*0.04*	ns	ns
4 line fluency	0.36	0.10	*0.70*	*0.82*	0.01	0.37	1
	ns	ns	*0.001*	*0.001*	ns	ns
RAWM NAA	−0.10	0.28	−0.21	−0.12	0.11	−0.04	−0.17
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
RPWM NAA	0.12	0.22	−0.12	−0.02	−0.11	−0.20	−0.09
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LAWM NAA	−0.31	0.22	0.20	0.18	0.07	0.17	0.07
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LPWM NAA	−0.22	0.10	0.03	0.08	0.22	−0.12	0.04
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
RAGM NAA	0.08	−0.20	*−0.46*	*−0.50*	−0.08	−0.17	*−0.52*
	ns	ns	*0.02*	*0.01*	ns	ns	*0.008*
RPGM NAA	0.12	−0.34	−0.39	−0.32	0.07	−0.32	*−0.42*
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	*0.04*
LAGM NAA	−0.26	0.04	0.13	−0.21	−0.08	−0.16	−0.03
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LPGM NAA	−0.25	−0.17	−0.12	*−0.40*	0.17	−0.23	−0.20
	ns	ns	ns	*0.05*	ns	ns	ns

UOT creativity, UOT–judged creativity ratings; Free draw creativity, free drawing task–judged creativity ratings; 4 line creativity, four line drawing task–judged creativity ratings; UOT fluency, UOT–number of responses; Free draw creativity, free drawing task–number of responses; 4 line creativity, four line drawing task–number of responses. Values in bold and italic indicate p < 0.05.

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Table 4.

Post hoc bivariate Pearson correlations between behavioral measures and spectroscopic measures from eight regions of interest for subjects with VIQ > 116

	COWAT	UOT creativity	Free draw creativity	4 line creativity	UOT fluency	Free draw fluency	4 line fluency
COWAT	1
UOT creativity	0.23	1
	ns
Free draw creativity	0.05	*0.57*	1
	ns	*0.001*
4 line creativity	0.12	*0.69*	*0.68*	1
	ns	*0.001*	*0.001*
UOT fluency	−0.13	*0.51*	0.26	0.31	1
	ns	*0.004*	ns	ns
Free draw fluency	−0.29	0.16	0.33	0.23	0.14	1
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
4 line fluency	0.14	*0.37*	*0.39*	*0.63*	0.32	0.34	1
	ns	*0.04*	*0.03*	*0.001*	ns	ns
RAWM NAA	−0.21	0.16	0.06	0.11	0.11	0.33	0.25
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
RPWM NAA	−0.23	−0.07	−0.05	0.03	0.09	0.18	0.19
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LAWM NAA	0.19	0.33	0.23	0.30	0.07	0.08	0.11
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LPWM NAA	−0.06	0.27	0.19	0.18	0.10	−0.14	0.01
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
RAGM NAA	−0.16	−0.20	0.03	−0.16	−0.35	−0.01	−0.14
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
RPGM NAA	*−0.37*	−0.24	0.01	−0.05	−0.25	0.01	−0.11
	*0.04*	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
LAGM NAA	0.32	*0.38*	*0.40*	0.25	−0.07	0.11	0.31
	ns	*0.04*	*0.03*	ns	ns	ns	ns
LPGM NAA	−0.05	0.06	*0.36*	0.34	−0.15	0.35	0.05
	ns	ns	*0.04*	ns	ns	ns	ns

UOT creativity, UOT–judged creativity ratings; Free draw creativity, free drawing task–judged creativity ratings; 4 line creativity, four line drawing task–judged creativity ratings; UOT fluency, UOT–number of responses; Free draw creativity, free drawing task–number of responses; 4 line creativity, four line drawing task–number of responses. Values in bold and italic indicate p < 0.05.