Expertise-related functional connectivity changes in Chinese calligraphy linked to flow experience.
Neuroimage December 15, 2025 Qingyan Kong, Yue Wang, Min Li et al.
Long-term Chinese calligraphy expertise is associated with higher flow experiences during handwriting tasks, even in unfamiliar script styles. Expert calligraphers reported significantly greater flow than novices when imagining writing both Kai-Shu and Cao-Shu scripts. Functional MRI revealed that experts exhibited stronger connectivity between the ventral anterior insula and superior parietal lobule, along with weaker connectivity between the ventral anterior insula and ventral striatum during Kai-Shu, indicating enhanced perception-action coupling and reduced task-irrelevant processing. During Cao-Shu, experts showed reduced connectivity between the anterior medial prefrontal cortex and default mode network regions, suggesting decreased self-referential processing under higher challenge. These connectivity patterns correlated with flow ratings, and Bayesian network modeling indicated a directional path from expertise to functional connectivity to flow, suggesting that long-term practice supports neural mechanisms linked to higher flow.