Two semantic memory search processes that are very important in imagination have actually been found by scientists.
How can we utilize knowledge exploration to trigger imagination?
We should use all of our anticipation while trying to come up with an innovative idea. However how does this take location in our brains and thoughts? Two semantic memory search systems that are associated with creativity have been revealed by Emmanuelle Volles group (Inserm) at the Frontlab of the Paris Brain Institute in association with the Universities of Graz (Austria), Warwick (UK), and the Israel Institute of Technology.
Creativity is not something that simply occurs. Its still a secret how creative ideas establish in our minds. According to present theories, it is partially depending on how our info is arranged in semantic memory and how we look for concepts there.
” What really takes place when we look for a new concept? Until now, we didnt have a clear idea about the processes that enable us to navigate our semantic memory and be imaginative,” discusses Marcela Ovando-Tellez, a postdoctoral fellow at Frontlab and the very first author of the research study.
Semantic memory and creativity
Semantic memory may be seen as a network of associations in between things and concepts that are basically connected to one another. For example, the word “apple” will be carefully associated to the classification of “fruit,” as well as to the ideas of “sweet,” “vegetable,” and even further-off expressions like “fairy tale” (if you have actually checked out Snow White). We are able to make sense of the world due to the fact that of all these concepts that are saved in our semantic memory.
The networks structure and how we move across it are directly related to executive control treatments, and these two factors are important to imagination. It is easier to come up with imaginations if the semantic linkages are established such that connections between far-off items can be made with ease.
The components of the semantic memory search procedure: clustering and changing
In order to understand how we navigate along this network of semantic associations to discover imaginations, Emmanuelle Volles group (Inserm) and their collaborators constructed a free semantic association job which includes giving a cue word to an individual and asking them for all the associates that enter your mind in relation to the proposed word. “The uniqueness here was that the hint words were polysemous, i.e., they had several possible meanings,” discusses Emmanuelle Volle (Inserm), the studys last author. “This obscurity leads to the activation of a number of significances of the cue words, which permitted us to classify the actions according to the related significance, and to distinguish two engaging elements of the memory search procedure: clustering and changing.”
What are clustering and changing? Taking the example of a word generation task including the classification “Animals”, clustering would include noting successively a number of names of a subcategory of animals such as birds, while changing would include moving from one subcategory to another, from birds to mammals or amphibians.
The task established by the group of researchers included, for instance, the French word “rayon”, which can have a number of meanings: the rays of the sun, the grocery store shelves, or the bicycle spokes. Therefore, if a participant proposes words connected with “ray” in relation to the weather condition in a row, he or she adopts a clustering type of memory search, whereas if she or he alternates in between words related to the weather and the grocery store, his/her memory search now is of a switching type.
The scientists integrated this association job with an entire series of other tests measuring imagination, the judgment of semantic associations, and executive control (i.e., inhibition, working memory, etc). Thanks to these data, they had the ability to reconstruct the structure of the semantic network of each individual and relate the two elements of memory search to creativity, semantic memory organization, and executive control capabilities. Practical imaging MRI acquisitions have enabled us to explore the underlying neural correlates.
Imagination, memory search, and cognitive control
The very first outcome obtained by the team is that clustering and switching are certainly associated with creativity, but in a different way. Clustering is linked to divergent thinking, i.e., the totally free generation of concepts, while switching is associated with the capability to integrate far-off associations between concepts. In addition, the switching part was likewise associated with the organization of the ideas in memory and executive control abilities.
The researchers then had the ability to forecast both clustering and changing from the individuals brain practical connectivity and show that the two parts have various brain correlates. Clustering was anticipated by connectivity patterns between brain networks associated with attention and executive control, recommending that persisting on a semantic category– all the names of mammals that enter your mind, for example– includes attentional procedures and might be associated with innovative idea generation. Changing, on the other hand, was forecasted by connectivity patterns including mainly the default network and the control network. This pattern of connection might support executive control procedures interacting with semantic memory to explore and combine remote components of memory.
Taken together, these results reveal how the alternations between exploratory search and concentrated assistance imagination, and offer new insights into the neurocognitive correlates of memory search related to innovative cognition.
Referral: “An examination of the neural and cognitive correlates of semantic memory search associated to innovative ability” by Marcela Ovando-Tellez, Mathias Benedek, Yoed N. Kenett, Thomas Hills, Sarah Bouanane, Matthieu Bernard, Joan Belo, Theophile Bieth, and Emmanuelle Volle, 16 June 2022, Communications Biology.DOI: 10.1038/ s42003-022-03547-x.
2 semantic memory search systems that are involved in creativity have actually been revealed by Emmanuelle Volles group (Inserm) at the Frontlab of the Paris Brain Institute in association with the Universities of Graz (Austria), Warwick (UK), and the Israel Institute of Technology.
According to present theories, it is partly reliant on how our details is arranged in semantic memory and how we browse for ideas there.
Semantic memory might be seen as a network of associations in between things and concepts that are more or less linked to one another. The researchers integrated this association job with a whole series of other tests measuring imagination, the judgment of semantic associations, and executive control (i.e., inhibition, working memory, etc). Thanks to these data, they were able to reconstruct the structure of the semantic network of each participant and relate the 2 components of memory search to imagination, semantic memory company, and executive control capabilities.