Saturday, October 13, 2012: 2:40 PM
Hall 4E/F (WSCC)
The Corpus Callosum (CC)—the largest bundle of nerve fibers connecting the right and left hemisphere—facilitates motor, sensory, and cognitive functioning. It is located at the bottom of the longitudinal fissures and covered by the cingulate gyrus. Recent studies have categorized the CC into five clusters projecting to discrete cortical regions: genu, anterior midbody, posterior midbody, isthmus, and splenium. Creativity is thought to depend on the integration of function between the two hemispheres, particularly integration of right hemisphere influence. We investigated the contributions of the CC and its five cortical clusters to creative cognition through Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and measures of divergent thinking. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized that lower frontal CC volume would result in higher creativity. We tested 125 neurologically and psychiatrically normal subjects, (57-Females; 68-Males), between the ages of 18-29 (mean age= 21.73 ±3), of high average intelligence (Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of 119 ±13). Stepwise linear regression was used, controlling for age, to assess the relationship between the five CC regions and an Index of Composite Creativity (CCI) (CCI average=100 ± 9.8). We found that a model that included lower genu and higher splenium CC volume predicted CCI (F = 6.09, p<.001, r2 =.13). These results support the transient hypofrontality hypothesis wherein lower frontal lobe integrity and/or connectivity is seen to facilitate creative cognition, particularly idea generation. Unexpectedly, we found that higher posterior CC volume was associated with CCI performance, suggesting a possible mechanism for increased access of knowledge stores in idea generation.