Editorial: “The cognitive, emotional and neural correlates of creativity”

Creativity is at the roots of extraordinary achievements in the arts and sciences, and enables individuals and their groups to adapt flexibly to changing circumstances, to manage complex social relations, and to survive and prosper through social, technological, and medical innovations. The ability to generate novel and potentially useful ideas and problem solutions (viz., creativity) is a key driver of human evolution, and among the most valued and sought after competencies in contemporary societies. Because creativity provides fitness functionality in both ancestral and contemporary societies, it stands to reason that (i) the human brain evolved to sustain and promote creative thinking and we should therefore be able to identify, (ii) the brain circuitries and neurohormonal modulators of the human capacity for creativity, and (iii) the core cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes underlying creative thought. In support of these propositions, in the past decade, creativity researchers have made great headway in identifying the neural, cognitive, motivational, and emotional correlates of creativity (e.g., Baas et al., 2008; Dietrich and Kanso, 2010; Nijstad et al., 2010; De Dreu et al., 2014). This Research Topic offers a collection of empirical work, and review and opinion papers about these and other stimulating endeavors.