How Working Memory and the Cerebellum Collaborate to Produce Creativity and Innovation

摘要

It is proposed that (a) creativity and innovation are the result of continuously repetitive processes of working memory that are learned as cognitive control models in the cerebellum, (b) that these cerebellar control models consist of multiple-paired predictor (forward) models within the MOdular Selection and Identification for Control (MOSAIC) and hierarchical MOSAIC (HMOSAIC) cerebellar architectures that explore and test problem-solving requirements, and (c) when resulting newly formed predictor/controller models are fed forward to more efficiently control the operations of working memory, they lead to creative and innovative problem solving (including the experiences of "insight" and "intuition "). Within this framework, three of Einstein's classic autobiographical accounts of creative discovery are analyzed. It is concluded that the working memory/cerebellar explanation of creativity and innovation can begin to tie together: (1) behavioral and neuroimaging studies of working memory, (2) behavioral, clinical and neuroimaging studies of the cognitive functions of the cerebellum, and (3) autobiographical accounts of creativity. It is suggested that newly developed electromagnetic inverse techniques will be a necessary complement to functional brain imaging studies to further establish the validity of the theory.