TY - JOUR
T1 - Neural mechanisms underpinning the association between visual arts education and creativity
AU - Teng, Jing
AU - Qiao, Xinuo
AU - Lu, Kelong
AU - Liu, Tuo
AU - Wang, Xinyue
AU - Gao, Zhenni
AU - Yu, Tingting
AU - Hao, Ning
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
PY - 2026/12
Y1 - 2026/12
N2 - Visual arts education has been linked to cognitive and neural benefits, yet the neural mechanisms associated with creativity remain unclear. This study examined how long-term engagement in design-related visual arts education relates to creative performance and brain function. Using a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching, we compared design majors to matched non-design majors. Participants completed visual art creative tasks (product and book cover design) and divergent thinking tasks (AUT, TTCT-figural) during fNIRS recording. The design group outperformed peers across tasks and showed greater left dorsolateral prefrontal activation during early idea generation, while non-design peers relied more on sensory and motor regions. Functional connectivity revealed reduced coupling within task-relevant circuits, indicating greater neural efficiency. Dynamic network analysis showed design majors spent more time in efficient states and switched between states more flexibly. These findings suggest that design-related visual arts education may support creativity through efficient and flexible brain network engagement.
AB - Visual arts education has been linked to cognitive and neural benefits, yet the neural mechanisms associated with creativity remain unclear. This study examined how long-term engagement in design-related visual arts education relates to creative performance and brain function. Using a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching, we compared design majors to matched non-design majors. Participants completed visual art creative tasks (product and book cover design) and divergent thinking tasks (AUT, TTCT-figural) during fNIRS recording. The design group outperformed peers across tasks and showed greater left dorsolateral prefrontal activation during early idea generation, while non-design peers relied more on sensory and motor regions. Functional connectivity revealed reduced coupling within task-relevant circuits, indicating greater neural efficiency. Dynamic network analysis showed design majors spent more time in efficient states and switched between states more flexibly. These findings suggest that design-related visual arts education may support creativity through efficient and flexible brain network engagement.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105027531682
U2 - 10.1038/s41539-025-00388-1
DO - 10.1038/s41539-025-00388-1
M3 - 文章
AN - SCOPUS:105027531682
SN - 2056-7936
VL - 11
JO - npj Science of Learning
JF - npj Science of Learning
IS - 1
M1 - 6
ER -