Pictionary-based fMRI paradigm to study the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity.

A novel game-like and creativity-conducive fMRI paradigm is developed to assess the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity in healthy adults. Participants were engaged in the word-guessing game of Pictionary(TM), using an MR-safe drawing tablet and no explicit instructions to be "creative". Using the primary contrast of drawing a given word versus drawing a control word (zigzag), we observed increased engagement of cerebellum, thalamus, left parietal cortex, right superior frontal, left prefrontal and paracingulate/cingulate regions, such that activation in the cingulate and left prefrontal cortices negatively influenced task performance. Further, using parametric fMRI analysis, increasing subjective difficulty ratings for drawing the word engaged higher activations in the left pre-frontal cortices, whereas higher expert-rated creative content in the drawings was associated with increased engagement of bilateral cerebellum. Altogether, our data suggest that cerebral-cerebellar interaction underlying implicit processing of mental representations has a facilitative effect on spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity.

Characteristics of dyslexia and dysgraphia in a Chinese patient with semantic dementia.

We describe a 44-year-old Chinese-speaking patient with semantic dementia (SD), who demonstrates dyslexia and dysgraphia. The man was administered a series of neuropsychological inspections, including general language tests and reading and writing examinations. The patient demonstrated surface dyslexia when reading single Chinese characters aloud. While most writing errors demonstrated by the patient were orthographically similar errors and noncharacter responses, such as pictograph, logographeme, and stroke errors, rather than phonologically plausible errors that were homophonous or different only in tone from the targets. We suggest that the type of acquired dysgraphia demonstrated by Chinese-speaking SD patients is determined by the unique features of the Chinese writing system.