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How serotonin transporter gene variance affects defensive behaviours along the threat imminence continuum
Publication date: April 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 26Author(s): Marijn CW Kroes, Marloes JAG Henckens, Judith R HombergAdequate responding to threat is essential to survival. The optimal defensive behavioural response depends on threat imminence. Serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene variance is known to affect defensive behaviours, and thought to predispose to stress-related disorders. Here, we propose that reduced 5-HTT availability is associated with increased defensive behaviours before and after threat detection, as well as flight behaviour at circa-strike, all aimed at preventing direct t...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - October 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Editorial overview: Sex and gender
Publication date: Available online 27 September 2018Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral SciencesAuthor(s): Jill B Becker, Carrie R Ferrario, Natalie C Tronson (Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences)
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - October 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Parabrachial-to-amygdala control of aversive learning
Publication date: April 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 26Author(s): Masashi Nagase, Kaori Mikami, Ayako M WatabeElucidating neuronal circuitry mechanisms underlying adaptive behaviors and memory formation is fundamental to understanding brain function. Pavlovian fear conditioning studies have provided important insights into the neuronal mechanisms of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli in the amygdala, and their associative mechanisms and plasticity have been intensively studied. Recent advances in optogenetics and pharmacogenetics combined with genetic manipulation tools, however, reveal new...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - October 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The neuropsychology of creativity
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Anna AbrahamThe neuropsychological approach has been instrumental in delivering key insights that have enabled a clearer understanding of the human mind and its workings. Despite the promise of this approach and the unique perspective it affords, it has only been limitedly utilized when exploring creative cognition. This paper presents a brief overview of three methodologies — single case studies, case series investigations on neurological populations, and case series investigations on psychiatric populations — that have been...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - October 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Computational models of creativity: a review of single-process and multi-process recent approaches to demystify creative cognition
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Vera Mekern, Bernhard Hommel, Zsuzsika SjoerdsCreativity is a compelling but heterogeneous phenomenon. As opposed to big-C creativity, which is regarded as limited to the rare brilliant mind, little-c creativity is indispensable in adaptive everyday behavior, serving to adjust to changing circumstances and challenges. Computational approaches help demystify human creativity by offering insights into the underlying mechanisms and their characteristics. Recently proposed computational models to creative cognition often focus on eit...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - October 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Neuropsychopharmacological regulation of performance on creativity-related tasks
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): David Q BeversdorfA number of factors affect performance on tasks associated with creativity. Two pharmacological systems in particularly been identified as important for their impact on creativity, the noradrenergic system and the dopaminergic systems. Furthermore, stress is also established as an important factor impacting performance, most likely mediated by its effects on these neurotransmitter systems. Herein, we review the current literature on the relationships between stress, the noradrenergic system, the dopaminergic sys...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - October 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Measuring spontaneous processes in creativity research
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Tali R Marron, Miriam FaustSpontaneous cognitive processes, operating in combination with controlled (executive) processes, are critical for creative ideation. Whereas decades of research have produced numerous validated methods for measuring controlled processes, the development of tasks and measurement tools that can capture spontaneous processes is still in relatively early stages. We review the most recent advancements in measuring spontaneous processes specifically in creative cognition. The methods we discuss include mind-w...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - October 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Creativity: linchpin in the quest for a viable theory of cultural evolution
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Liane GaboraThis paper outlines the implications of neural-level accounts of insight, and models of the conceptual interactions that underlie creativity, for a theory of cultural evolution. Since elements of human culture exhibit cumulative, adaptive, open-ended change, it seems reasonable to view culture as an evolutionary process, one fueled by creativity. Associative memory models of creativity and mathematical models of how concepts combine and transform through interaction with a context, support a view of creativity that is...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - October 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Avoidance problems reconsidered
Publication date: April 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 26Author(s): Christopher K Cain, Nathan S KlineActive avoidance is the prototypical paradigm for studying aversively motivated instrumental behavior. However, avoidance research stalled amid heated theoretical debates and the hypothesis that active avoidance is essentially Pavlovian flight. Here I reconsider key ‘avoidance problems’ and review neurobehavioral data collected with modern tools. Although the picture remains incomplete, these studies strongly suggest that avoidance has an instrumental component and is mediated by brain circu...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - September 21, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Neural and genetic mechanisms of creative potential
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Zhiting Ren, Wenjing Yang, Jiang QiuCreative potential exists in everyone and it has pervasively penetrated into our daily life. A series of recently studies have shed new light on the issue of how the brain produces creative potential and how genes affect it. The present study systematically explored the genetic and brain basis of creative potential. In terms of brain level, a wide range of brain regions in the structure and function are involved in creative potential. In terms of heredity level, genes involved in dopamine (DA) ...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - September 18, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Where in the brain is creativity: a brief account of a wild-goose chase
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Arne DietrichThe neuroscientific study of creativity is stuck and lost. Having perseverated on a paradigm — divergent thinking — that is theoretically incoherent, the field has neither produced intelligible data on the brain mechanisms of creativity nor developed alternative approaches to study the topic. This paper brings into sharp focus the three confounds — validity, false category formation, compound construct — that cripple this paradigm and shows how the use of in-vogue neuroscientific concepts — right brains, pr...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - September 16, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Network neuroscience of creative cognition: mapping cognitive mechanisms and individual differences in the creative brain
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Roger E Beaty, Paul Seli, Daniel L SchacterNetwork neuroscience research is providing increasing specificity on the contribution of large-scale brain networks to creative cognition. Here, we summarize recent experimental work examining cognitive mechanisms of network interactions and correlational studies assessing network dynamics associated with individual creative abilities. Our review identifies three cognitive processes related to network interactions during creative performance: goal-directed memory retrieval, prepotent-res...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - September 13, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Primary and secondary creativity
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Mark A Runco, Ronald A BeghettoWho decides what counts as creative? Although most creativity researchers would acknowledge that both individuals and broader social audiences can offer interpretations about creativity, the way in which researchers tend to conceptualize and study creativity typically focuses on either an individual or a social perspective. Those who focus on individual interpretations may treat the social superficially (if at all), whereas those who focus on social judgments risk minimizing or erasing the role of t...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - September 11, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Creativity and the Big Two model of personality: plasticity and stability
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Gregory J FeistThe general conclusion from recent research on the Big Two dimensions of human personality — Plasticity (extraversion and openness) and Stability (neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) — show that Plasticity has a more robust and stronger association with creativity than Stability. More specifically, people who are high in plasticity and low in stability may be most likely to exhibit creative thought and behavior. Moreover, current research in neuroscience, genetics and neurochemistry of be...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - September 9, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Rules for aversive learning and decision-making
Publication date: April 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 26Author(s): Joanna Oi-Yue Yau, Gavan P McNallyAssociative and reinforcement learning rules describe how animals, including humans, predict events in the world. In aversive learning, these rules describe how we predict danger. Here we outline major associative and reinforcement rules for aversive learning as well as behavioural approaches to study them. We identify key findings from the emerging literature on how these different learning rules are instantiated in the mammalian brain. We also highlight key areas where understanding is lacking...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - September 8, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research