多巴胺对创造性的影响及其大脑机制研究进展

The effects of dopamine on creativity and the brain mechanism:Current research

创造性作为人类的一种高级认知能力对推动社会发展和科学进步有重要的作用,而多巴胺作为一种重要的神经递质对人类的认知活动起着重要的调节作用.当前关于创造性能力和多巴胺的关系探讨也越来越热,但是二者之间的关系及其作用机制还不甚明晰.因此,本文从多巴胺的视角对创造性的研究进行了梳理评述,主要包括:(1)从行为研究来看,运动和积极情绪等可以促使大脑中多巴胺的分泌,从而提升创造性表现;(2)从生理研究来看,用来治疗帕金森病的多巴胺激动剂能够增强患者的艺术创造性,而用来治疗精神分裂症的多巴胺拮抗剂则会抑制创造性产生;(3)从神经科学研究来看,与创造性相关的脑区包括了黑质-纹状体通路、中脑-边缘系统通路和中脑-皮质通路这3条重要的多巴胺奖赏神经环路;(4)从遗传研究来看,作为多巴胺重要遗传基础的儿茶酚胺氧位甲基转移酶(COMT)与创造性潜能有关.总之,本文通过对大量研究的整合分析,从多巴胺的角度对创造性的认知神经机制进行系统梳理,并就该领域当前研究的不足和未来趋势进行了总结和展望.

As a kind of advanced cognitive ability,creativity refers to the ability of an individual to produce novel,unique and valuable ideas or products.Creativity has an enormous impact on promoting social development and scientific progress.Dopamine,an indispensable catecholamine neurotransmitter in the nerve centre of mammals,is also the precursor of norepinephrine and acts through the corresponding receptors in the brain.Dopamine plays an important role in regulating human cognitive activities.The process of creativity is usually sporadic,which describes the epiphany process that occurs after representational change.Positive emotions are induced during the creative process,which involves the participation of dopamine and the dopamine system.Many factors can affect creativity,such as working memory,motivation,and reward.However,the existing studies cannot clearly explain the complex factors and mechanisms behind creativity.Although the current discussion about the relationship between creativity and dopamine is heating up,most of the existing research focuses on a single level instead of exploring the cognitive mechanisms linking creativity and dopamine.Therefore,we performed a comprehensive systematic review of creativity research from the perspective of dopamine,focusing on the following four areas:(1)From the perspective of behaviour research,exercise and positive emotions can promote the secretion of dopamine in the brain,thereby enhancing creative performance.(2)From the perspective of physiological studies,dopamine shows a relationship with creativity in the clinical treatment of psychiatric diseases.Dopamine agonists used to treat Parkinson’s disease can enhance the artistic creativity of patients,while dopamine antagonists used to treat schizophrenia can inhibit creativity.(3)With the rapid development of nuclear magnetic imaging technologies,such as electroencephalography and structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging(f MRI),the structures and connections of the brain have been explored.From the perspective of neuroscience research,the brain regions related to creativity include three important dopaminergic reward circuits:the nigrostriatal pathway,the mesolimbic pathway,and the mesocortical pathway.(4)From the perspective of genetic research,the gene encoding catecholamine methyltransferase(COMT),which is an important regulator of dopamine level,is related to creative ability.In summary,our review systematically examines the cognitive neural mechanisms of creativity from the perspective of dopamine through behavioural,physiological,neuroscientific and genetic research.Next,our review summarizes and integrates the analysis of various studies.Finally,our review discusses the current research limitations and future trends in this field.This work extends the scope of previous studies and provides a more precise description of the effects of dopamine on creativity and the brain.