The ability to produce novel ideas is central to societal progress and innovation; however, little is known about the biological basis of creativity. Here, we investigate the organization of brain networks that support creativity by combining functional neuroimaging data with gene expression information. Given the multifaceted nature of creative thinking, we hypothesized that distributed connectivity would not only be related to individual differences in creative ability, but also delineate the cortical distributions of genes involved in synaptic plasticity. We defined neuroimaging phenotypes using a graph theory approach that detects local and distributed network circuits, then characterized the spatial associations between functional connectivity and cortical gene expression distributions. Our findings reveal strong spatial correlations between connectivity maps and sets of genes devoted to synaptic assembly and signaling. This connectomic-transcriptome approach thus identifies gene expression profiles associated with high creative ability, linking cognitive flexibility to neural plasticity in the human brain.

中文翻译：

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创造力的皮层网络追踪人脑突触可塑性的基因表达谱

产生新颖想法的能力是社会进步和创新的核心；然而，人们对创造力的生物学基础知之甚少。在这里，我们通过将功能神经影像数据与基因表达信息相结合来研究支持创造力的大脑网络的组织。考虑到创造性思维的多面性，我们假设分布式连接不仅与创造性能力的个体差异有关，而且还描​​绘了与突触可塑性相关的基因的皮质分布。我们使用图论方法定义神经影像表型，该方法检测局部和分布式网络电路，然后表征功能连接和皮质基因表达分布之间的空间关联。我们的研究结果揭示了连接图与致力于突触组装和信号传导的基因组之间存在很强的空间相关性。因此，这种连接组转录组方法可以识别与高创造力相关的基因表达谱，将认知灵活性与人脑中的神经可塑性联系起来。