Neural correlates of metacontrol persistence and flexibility induced by creativity and meditation.
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) October 2, 2025 Weitao Zhang, Zsuzsika Sjoerds, Rebecca Mourits et al.
The brain's metacontrol states of persistence and flexibility are linked to distinct neural networks. Persistence-related conditions activated areas modulated by frontal and striatal dopamine—prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and basal ganglia—indicating goal-directed attention and top-down control. Flexibility-related conditions activated default mode network regions, suggesting reduced top-down control. This pattern was clearer for creativity tasks than for meditation. No significant effects emerged when contrasting focused-attention and open-monitoring meditation, nor when examining brain activation overlap between meditation and creativity at the whole-brain level. The metacontrol model of creativity received partial support, but its prediction for the left inferior frontal gyrus showed the opposite result, requiring clarification.