Neural representations of noncentral events during narrative encoding predict subsequent story ending originality

Abstract

On the basis of the confluence theories of creativity, creative ideation depends on forging links between existing memory traces. The synergy between memory and creative thought is well-established, but neural dynamics of memory integration for creativity are understudied. Here, we extended the traditional memory paradigm. Participants read, recalled narratives, and wrote endings. Computational linguistic analysis showed that those integrating more noncentral events—those less semantically connected to other events within the narrative—wrote more original endings. Analyzing fMRI data captured during narrative encoding, we discovered that story ending originality can be predicted by shared event representation across participants in the right Brodmann area 25 (BA25) and stronger hippocampal event segmentation signal during noncentral event encoding. These results held across different narrative types (i.e., crime, romance, and fantasy stories). Overall, these results offer notable insights, from the perspective of network structure into how humans encode and retrieve complex real-world experiences to enhance creativity.