As a high-order cognitive ability, creativity is viewed as the result of complex interplay between a set of mental processes. However, previous studies have mainly tested one-to-one mutual relations between creativity and other cognitive abilities. It lacks studies to examine whether creativity is related to the interaction between cognitive systems. The current study aimed to fill this gap by testing the relations of creativity to the interactions between cognitive control and episodic memory systems using both behavioral and neuroimaging methods. The Alternative Uses Task was used to measure the divergent component of creativity. A computer-based behavioral task was used to measure cognitive control, episodic memory, and their interactions. Additionally, the interactions between cognitive systems were characterized by computing the resting-state functional connectivity between hippocampus and prefrontal regions, which are the neural substrates for episodic memory and cognitive control, respectively. By analyzing these behavioral and neuroimaging data, the behavioral results indicated that creativity was significantly related to the effect of cognitive control induced by switching tasks or proactive cues on subsequent memories of items or sources. Additionally, neuroimaging results showed that creativity was significantly related to the connectivity from hippocampus to both left superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus. Such relations were also differentiated between anterior and posterior hippocampus. Altogether, these findings suggest that creativity is related to interactions between cognitive control and episodic memory, supporting the claim that creativity is the result of complex interplay between high-order cognitive functions.

作为一种高阶认知能力，创造力被视为一组心理过程之间复杂相互作用的结果。然而，以往的研究主要测试创造力与其他认知能力之间一对一的相互关系。缺乏研究来考察创造力是否与认知系统之间的相互作用有关。目前的研究旨在通过使用行为和神经成像方法测试创造力与认知控制和情景记忆系统之间相互作用的关系来填补这一空白。替代用途任务用于衡量创造力的不同组成部分。使用基于计算机的行为任务来测量认知控制、情景记忆及其相互作用。此外，认知系统之间的相互作用通过计算海马和前额叶区域之间的静息状态功能连接来表征，前额叶区域分别是情景记忆和认知控制的神经基质。通过分析这些行为和神经影像数据，行为结果表明创造力与由切换任务或主动提示对项目或来源的后续记忆引起的认知控制的影响显着相关。此外，神经影像学结果表明，创造力与海马体与左额上回和额中回的连接性显着相关。这种关系在前海马体和后海马体之间也有区别。共，