ArticleScientific reports2020
TDCS to the right anterior temporal lobe facilitates insight problem-solving.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A meta-analytical review of the impact of mindfulness on creativity: Framing current lines of research and defining moderator variables.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2023Pooled it
- Offline generative network reconfiguration guides insight-like accelerated learning by assimilation into schema in rats.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The white matter of Aha! moments.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Neural correlates and dynamical brain states of creative insight in a spatial problem task.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The intersection of near-death experiences (NDEs) and traumatic brain injury (TBI): neurobiological, phenomenological, and creative implications.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- The Evolution of the Optimization of Cognitive and Social Functions in the Cerebellum and Thereby the Rise of Homo sapiens Through Cumulative Culture.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2024Review
- An Integrated theory of false insights and beliefs under psychedelics.Communications psychology · 2024Review
- Solving problems with an Aha! increases risk preference.Thinking & reasoning · 2024Article
- Does social rigidity predict cognitive rigidity? Profiles of socio-cognitive polarization.Psychological research · 2023Article
- A Randomized Clinical Trial to Assess the Effect of Medication Therapy Plus tDCS on Problem-solving and Emotion Regulation of Patients with Bipolar Disorder Type I.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Insight Problem Solving Ability Predicts Reduced Susceptibility to Fake News, Bullshit, and Overclaiming.Thinking & reasoning · 2023Article
- Design Meets Neuroscience: An Electroencephalogram Study of Design Thinking in Concept Generation Phase.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Enhancement of semantic integration reasoning by tRNS.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
- The Effect of Dopaminergic Replacement Therapy on Creative Thinking and Insight Problem-Solving in Parkinson's Disease Patients.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Over the Right Anterior Temporal Lobe Does Not Modulate False Recognition.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Brain Activations and Functional Connectivity Patterns Associated with Insight-Based and Analytical Anagram Solving.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- The effect of transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) over bilateral posterior parietal cortex on divergent and convergent thinking.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Oculometric signature of switch into awareness? Pupil size predicts sudden insight whereas microsaccades predict problem-solving via analysis.NeuroImage · 2020Article
- Left Prefrontal Cortex Supports the Recognition of Meaningful Patterns in Ambiguous Stimuli.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
Problem-solving is essential for advances in cultural, social, and scientific knowledge. It is also one of the most challenging cognitive processes to facilitate. Some problem-solving is deliberate, but frequently people solve problems with a sudden insight, also known as a Eureka or "Aha!" moment. The advantage of solving problems via insight is that these solutions are more accurate, relying on a unique pattern of neural activity, compared to deliberative strategies. The right Anterior Temporal Lobe (rATL), putatively involved in semantic integration, is distinctively activated when people experience an insight. The rATL may contribute to the recognition of distant semantic relations that support insight solutions, although fMRI and EEG evidence for its involvement is, by nature, correlational. In this study, we investigate if focal sub-threshold neuromodulation to the rATL facilitates insight problem-solving. In three different groups, using a within- and between-subjects design, we tested the causal role of this brain region in problem-solving, by applying High Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to the rATL (active and sham condition) or the left frontopolar region while participants attempted to solve Compound Remote Associates problems before, during and after stimulation. Participants solved a higher percentage of problems, overall, and specifically by insight when they received rATL stimulation, compared to pre-stimulation, and compared to sham and left frontopolar stimulation. These results confirm the crucial role played by the rATL in insight problem-solving.
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