More creative through positive mood? Not everyone!
It is commonly assumed that positive mood improves human creativity and that the neurotransmitter dopamine might mediate this association. However, given the non-linear relation between dopamine and flexibility in divergent thinking (Akbari Chermahini & Hommel, 2010), the impact of mood on d...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2012-11-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00319/full |
| _version_ | 1818280536947294208 |
|---|---|
| author | Soghra eAkbari Chermahini Soghra eAkbari Chermahini Bernhard eHommel Bernhard eHommel |
| author_facet | Soghra eAkbari Chermahini Soghra eAkbari Chermahini Bernhard eHommel Bernhard eHommel |
| author_sort | Soghra eAkbari Chermahini |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | It is commonly assumed that positive mood improves human creativity and that the neurotransmitter dopamine might mediate this association. However, given the non-linear relation between dopamine and flexibility in divergent thinking (Akbari Chermahini & Hommel, 2010), the impact of mood on divergent kinds of creativity might depend on a given individual’s tonic dopamine level. We tested this possibility in adults by assessing mood, performance in a divergent-thinking task (the Alternate Uses Task), and eye-blink rates (EBRs), a well-established clinical marker of the individual dopamine level, before and after positive-mood or negative-mood induction. As expected, the association between flexibility in divergent-thinking performance and EBR followed an inverted U-shape function (with best performance for medium levels), positive mood induction raised EBRs and only individuals with below-median EBRs, but not those with above-median EBRs, benefited from positive mood. These observations provide support for dopamine-based approaches to the impact of mood on creativity and challenge the generality of the widely held view that positive mood facilitates creativity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T23:50:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b29cfdb8c0014b4eae81f78f5aaa6937 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T23:50:48Z |
| publishDate | 2012-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-b29cfdb8c0014b4eae81f78f5aaa69372022-12-22T00:06:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612012-11-01610.3389/fnhum.2012.0031931875More creative through positive mood? Not everyone!Soghra eAkbari Chermahini0Soghra eAkbari Chermahini1Bernhard eHommel2Bernhard eHommel3Leiden UniversityLeiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeiden UniversityLeiden Institute for Brain and CognitionIt is commonly assumed that positive mood improves human creativity and that the neurotransmitter dopamine might mediate this association. However, given the non-linear relation between dopamine and flexibility in divergent thinking (Akbari Chermahini & Hommel, 2010), the impact of mood on divergent kinds of creativity might depend on a given individual’s tonic dopamine level. We tested this possibility in adults by assessing mood, performance in a divergent-thinking task (the Alternate Uses Task), and eye-blink rates (EBRs), a well-established clinical marker of the individual dopamine level, before and after positive-mood or negative-mood induction. As expected, the association between flexibility in divergent-thinking performance and EBR followed an inverted U-shape function (with best performance for medium levels), positive mood induction raised EBRs and only individuals with below-median EBRs, but not those with above-median EBRs, benefited from positive mood. These observations provide support for dopamine-based approaches to the impact of mood on creativity and challenge the generality of the widely held view that positive mood facilitates creativity.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00319/fullDopaminecreativitydivergent thinkingemotioneye blink rate |
| spellingShingle | Soghra eAkbari Chermahini Soghra eAkbari Chermahini Bernhard eHommel Bernhard eHommel More creative through positive mood? Not everyone! Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Dopamine creativity divergent thinking emotion eye blink rate |
| title | More creative through positive mood? Not everyone! |
| title_full | More creative through positive mood? Not everyone! |
| title_fullStr | More creative through positive mood? Not everyone! |
| title_full_unstemmed | More creative through positive mood? Not everyone! |
| title_short | More creative through positive mood? Not everyone! |
| title_sort | more creative through positive mood not everyone |
| topic | Dopamine creativity divergent thinking emotion eye blink rate |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00319/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT soghraeakbarichermahini morecreativethroughpositivemoodnoteveryone AT soghraeakbarichermahini morecreativethroughpositivemoodnoteveryone AT bernhardehommel morecreativethroughpositivemoodnoteveryone AT bernhardehommel morecreativethroughpositivemoodnoteveryone |