ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades, considerable advances have been made in our understanding of the neural bases of creativity. Propelled by a growing focus on large-scale brain networks in systems neuroscience, it has been shown that creativity is supported by the dynamic interaction of three networks in the brain: Whereas the default-mode network appears to be involved in the generation of novel thought, the executive control network regulates that process to produce task-relevant output. In turn, the salience network oversees the dynamic switching between the aforementioned two networks in the course of creative cognition. Within this literature, there is an accumulation of studies that have focused on artistic creativity specifically, examining the neural bases of creative drawing, poetry composition, story writing, and jazz improvisation, among others. By and large, the neural bases of artistic creativity resemble the neural bases of creativity in other domains, although they also recruit domain-specific structures and networks in the process. This work is well positioned to make further advances on important questions of interest, including the extent to which high-level artistic creativity is distinguished from everyday acts of creativity, as well as the developmental neural trajectory of the emergence of artistic creativity across the lifespan.
