Prot. 2022CX5TLZ - In Da Vinci’s mind: Fundamental Correlates of Creativity for Artists and Scientists

The study of creativity is essential for the understanding of the continuous exponential growth of human knowledge. However, despite rare examples of exceptional success in different knowledge domains, (see Leonardo Da Vinci), anecdotal examples as well as research evidence clearly show how creativity is differently expressed in diverse domains. Especially the scientific and artistic cultures are taken as extreme examples of the different phenomenological expression of creative thinking. There are in particular two fundamental research questions which are still open in this regard: which are the functional and neural mechanisms that characterize and distinguish scientific versus artistic creative performance and achievement? Which is the weight of creativity and of intelligence to succeed in these two knowledge domains? In fact, a direct neurophysiological comparison of creativity in these two domains is lacking and clear evidences of any different neural characterization of creativity in art and science are very scant. In the same way, rare evidence exists on the relationship between intelligent and creative behaviors in scientific and artistic contexts in the definition of creative achievement. The aim of the present project is to fill these important gaps by systematically exploring the differences and communalities in creative thinking performance and creative achievement in arts and science both from a neurophysiological and from a behavioral point of view. To this purpose, three Work Packages will be carried out with the main goals to: 1) analyse the core neural characterization of the cognitive mechanisms defining creative thinking performance in artists and in scientists. Based on EEG methodology, a systematic exploration of the brain temporal dynamics associated with performance in diverse creative thinking tasks will be analysed in a group of participants from the scientific and the artistic knowledge domains. Moreover, this WP will be devoted to the exploration of the cerebral networks associated with creative achievement. Specifically, the spontaneous cerebral dynamics of a brain in resting state associated with the creative success in arts and science will be explored. 2) analyse the differential weight of intelligence and creativity according to the nature of the context in science and art. By an exploration of different conceptual spaces in art and science in terms of looseness and tightness, the explanatory role of intelligence and creativity to success in several scenarios within the scientific and artistic knowledge domains will be explored. 3) define a theoretical and empirically testable model to explain the role of brain dynamics and connectivity, creative abilities, intelligence and the context in defining the creative success in art and science. Based on the within-nature design of the DA VINCI project and using a structural equation model approach, we will test the explanatory role of these different variables on the creative success in art and science. If we consider creativity to be the spark for the development of novel science and art, as well as the engine for the exponential increase of knowledge within the two disciplines, this project is aimed at exploring the very soul of the two cultures. The findings extracted from this project could potentially reveal the behavioural and neurophysiological substrates bringing together and/or differentiating creative behaviour expressed in the two knowledge domains.

The study of creativity is essential for the understanding of the continuous exponential growth of human knowledge. However, despite rare examples of exceptional success in different knowledge domains, (see Leonardo Da Vinci), anecdotal examples as well as research evidence clearly show how creativity is differently expressed in diverse domains. Especially the scientific and artistic cultures are taken as extreme examples of the different phenomenological expression of creative thinking. There are in particular two fundamental research questions which are still open in this regard: which are the functional and neural mechanisms that characterize and distinguish scientific versus artistic creative performance and achievement? Which is the weight of creativity and of intelligence to succeed in these two knowledge domains? In fact, a direct neurophysiological comparison of creativity in these two domains is lacking and clear evidences of any different neural characterization of creativity in art and science are very scant. In the same way, rare evidence exists on the relationship between intelligent and creative behaviors in scientific and artistic contexts in the definition of creative achievement. The aim of the present project is to fill these important gaps by systematically exploring the differences and communalities in creative thinking performance and creative achievement in arts and science both from a neurophysiological and from a behavioral point of view. To this purpose, three Work Packages will be carried out with the main goals to: 1) analyse the core neural characterization of the cognitive mechanisms defining creative thinking performance in artists and in scientists. Based on EEG methodology, a systematic exploration of the brain temporal dynamics associated with performance in diverse creative thinking tasks will be analysed in a group of participants from the scientific and the artistic knowledge domains. Moreover, this WP will be devoted to the exploration of the cerebral networks associated with creative achievement. Specifically, the spontaneous cerebral dynamics of a brain in resting state associated with the creative success in arts and science will be explored. 2) analyse the differential weight of intelligence and creativity according to the nature of the context in science and art. By an exploration of different conceptual spaces in art and science in terms of looseness and tightness, the explanatory role of intelligence and creativity to success in several scenarios within the scientific and artistic knowledge domains will be explored. 3) define a theoretical and empirically testable model to explain the role of brain dynamics and connectivity, creative abilities, intelligence and the context in defining the creative success in art and science. Based on the within-nature design of the DA VINCI project and using a structural equation model approach, we will test the explanatory role of these different variables on the creative success in art and science. If we consider creativity to be the spark for the development of novel science and art, as well as the engine for the exponential increase of knowledge within the two disciplines, this project is aimed at exploring the very soul of the two cultures. The findings extracted from this project could potentially reveal the behavioural and neurophysiological substrates bringing together and/or differentiating creative behaviour expressed in the two knowledge domains.