"Noradrenergic modulation of creativity" by de Rooij, Alwin; Vromans, Ruben; Dekker, M.

Summary

This 2018 paper from the Creativity Research Journal, by de Rooij, Vromans, and Dekker of Tilburg University, investigates the link between the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) system and creativity. Using pupillometry (pupil dilation measurement as a proxy for LC-NA activity), two studies examined the relationship between tonic (baseline) and phasic (task-evoked) pupil dilation and performance on divergent and convergent thinking tasks. The key finding is that tonic LC-NA activity, reflected in tonic pupil dilation, significantly predicted the generation of original ideas during divergent thinking, across both psychometric and real-world tasks. Phasic LC-NA activity, measured by phasic pupil dilation, predicted effective idea generation in the real-world task, but not in the psychometric task. Importantly, neither tonic nor phasic activity predicted performance on convergent thinking tasks. The study thus provides novel experimental evidence supporting a differentiated role for LC-NA system activity in the creative process, specifically highlighting its influence on originality during divergent thinking.