Association, prediction, and engram cells in creative thinking

Abstract

Creative thinking can be defined as a form of neural processing in the human brain that develops a novel and valuable unity between different or remote percepts or concepts. Recently, experimental studies have demonstrated that the connections made between engram cells or associative memory cells through synaptic plasticity are the neural substrates of memory. Considering the concept of cell assembly, which conjectures that a special group of neurons that connect together and fire simultaneously or sequentially is the neural basis for a percept, memory, or concept, we propose herein that when we acquire a new percept or learn a new concept, a group of new engram cells and their associated circuits will be formed in the brain. We postulate that creative thinking is a form of neurophysiological processing in which a new engram cell group encoding a novel design, concept, or idea arises through the formation of novel connections and/or modulates associations between already existing engram cell groups representing preexisting percepts, memories, or concepts. Aspects of associative and predictive processing are the key components of this proposed mechanism of creative thinking and memory formation.

Keywords:

• creative thinking
• engram cells
• associative memory cells
• association
• prediction

Public Interest Statement

Creativity is and has been humanity’s most useful ability for thriving on earth. Artificial intelligence has gradually become one of the hottest topics in science and engineering over the last decade. However, knowledge of the neuropsychological mechanisms of creative thinking is quite limited. In this article, we postulate a new cellular-level model to explain the processes of creative thinking. We believe that this new model could provide further inspiration for the development of computational creativity, a promising subfield of artificial intelligence.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made substantial intellectual contributions to the conceptualization of the work. DY prepared the original draft. BL completed the review and editing. Final approval of the version to be published was the responsibility of DY and BL.

Additional information

Funding

The authors (DY and BL) were supported for this work by the Washington Institute for Health Sciences: [Grant number G20170701].

Notes on contributors

Dingcheng Yang

Dingcheng Yang is a research intern at the Washington Institute for Health Sciences, Arlington, VA, and Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC. He made a significant intellectual contribution to this project.

Bin Li

Bin Li, MD, is a research specialist in the Department of Neurosciences at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, and a scientist at the Washington Institute for Health Sciences, Arlington, VA. He received his MD from Hebei Medical University, China. His research interests include neuropharmacology, neurodegenerative diseases, and cognitive psychology. He has published more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has reviewed manuscripts for multiple journals.