ArticleBMC psychology2026
The white matter of Aha! moments.
Article in BMC psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Creativity: a (white) matter of connectivity.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Insights, or "Aha!" moments, are a crucial aspect of idea generation in creative cognition. While functional neuroimaging studies have identified brain regions involved in these insights, their white matter substrate remains unexplored. This study employed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate how white matter microstructure—measured by fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD)—relates to individuals’ tendency to solve Compound Remote Associates problems through insight versus step-by-step analytical reasoning. After controlling for age and gender, left-hemisphere omnibus tests (Stouffer’s Z and FDR) showed significant FA associations for left dorsal tracts composites (i.e., Arcuate Fasciculus, Posterior Arcuate Fasciculus, and Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus III), while MD tracts composites trended but were not FDR-significant (p= 0.032 q= 0.081). Findings point to a left-lateralized dorsal substrate of insight. These findings suggest that insight may benefit from more diffuse connectivity patterns, allowing for broader semantic activation and cognitive flexibility. Our study provides novel evidence for distinct structural connectivity patterns associated with different idea-generation approaches, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the neural architecture supporting creative cognition.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.