Research highlights

Creativity and the brain

Professor Simone Shamay-Tsoory and colleagues combined resting-state fMRI, and direct current stimulation to show the involvement of the Default Mode Network in creative thinking. The default mode network is a set of midline cortical regions, which is more active when thoughts have no clear and specific external goal. Creative thinking was measured with the ‘Alternative Use Task’, where participants were asked to come up with as many as possible ways one can use a brick, for example. The researchers report that stronger coupling within the Default Mode Network was associated with creative ability. Interference of this network using electrical stimulation results in reduced creative fluency. Click here for the full paper.

Body ownership and the brain:

Professor Salomon and colleagues aimed to solve the misalignment puzzle of our awareness of our own body and the true sensations of it. The rubber hand illusion is a classic example, in which we subjectively feel a rubber hand to be part of our body. In this research, the authors used an fMRI to measure brain responses while participants experienced the rubber hand illusion. The authors report that the subjective feeling of the body is represented in a different network than the sensation of it. Click here for the full paper.

Predicting PTSD following trauma

Dr Admon and colleagues offer a new imaging marker to predict the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following trauma. Following traumatic an event, some individuals develop PTSD. This is a debilitating condition with symptoms that include intrusion thoughts, heightened vigilance, and alert response. The author reports that a pattern of spontaneous coupling between different brain regions, measured a month after the trauma can predict who will develop the chronic PTSD condition. Click here for the full paper

Reading in Children

Professor Bitan and colleagues investigated the neurodevelopment of reading in children aged 7 to 12 years. The authors report that children used a qualitative different neural mechanism than adults.  Specifically, when reading, children engage bilateral temporal cortices, while adults showed left hemisphere bias. Children use morphological processing primarily when reading pointed words.  For details on the adult’s study click here, and the children’s study click here.

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