ИСТИНА

Present study investigates the role of cingulate cortex regions in various verbal creativity characteristics. 15 right handed females (59-85 years old). We performed magnetic resonance morphometric analysis of T1 images in order to measure absolute square surfaces (in mm2) of three cingulate cortex regions – anterior (BA 24 and 33), posterior ventral (BA 23), posterior dorsal (BA 31) areas of both hemispheres. Overall creativity, originality , fluency and flexibility were measured with the Russian adaptation of Guilford’s Alternate Uses test. We calculated non-parametric correlations (p<0.01) between creativity characteristics and morphometrical data. Originality correlates positively with the size of posterior ventral cingulate cortex area (r=0.71). Overall creativity also correlates positively with the same cingulate cortex region (r=0.68). No significant correlations between other cingulate cortex regions and creativity characteristics were revealed. It is known that posterior ventral cingulate cortex is connected to hippocampus (associative memory), anterior cingulate cortex (cognitive evaluation) and precuneus (emotional evaluation). This can expl ain the relation of this brain region to the originality, which involves all of those processes. Correlation between originality and the right hemisphere can be related to the fact that producing original answers may require imagination, rather than verbal thinking.