Subcortical neural basis of malevolent creativity.

Zhenni Gao, Xiaojin Liu, Jing Teng, Ning Hao

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Article in iScience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Zhenni GaoInstitute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610066, China.

Xiaojin LiuCenter for Educational Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519087, China.

Jing TengSchool of Psychology, Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for the Mental Health and Crisis Intervention of Children and Adolescents, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang 321004, China.

Ning HaoShanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Malevolent creativity (MC) involves generating original ideas to harm others, and it not only relies on cognitive flexibility but may also be related to the activities of emotional and motivational brain regions known as the subcortical regions. However, the relationship between the subcortical regions and MC performance remains unclear. We calculated dynamic graph-based analyses using resting-state fMRI. We found that MC originality was negatively correlated with functional connectivity (FC) between the right nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and cortical regions such as the right medial superior frontal gyrus (mSFG) and supplementary motor area (SMA). Similarly, benevolent creative (BC) originality was negatively correlated with FC between the right NAcc and SMA/superior frontal gyrus (SFG). MC malevolence was positively correlated with FC between the left caudate and postcentral gyrus and negatively correlated with FC between the right amygdala and SFG. These findings suggest that MC is associated with a complex interaction between the subcortical and cortical regions.

Indexed as

Biological sciencesClinical neuroscienceNatural sciencesNeuroscience

Identifiers

PMID41210996

DOI10.1016/j.isci.2025.113733

PMCPMC12590018

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.