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Openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking

Individual differences in trait levels of openness to experience and creativity have been theoretically linked to dopamine function. However, empirical evidence for this assumption is scarce, especially for causal connections. The present study aims to directly assess the influence of dopamine activ...

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Autores principales: Käckenmester, Wiebke, Bott, Antonia, Wacker, Jan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219677/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32435738
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pen.2019.3
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author Käckenmester, Wiebke
Bott, Antonia
Wacker, Jan
author_facet Käckenmester, Wiebke
Bott, Antonia
Wacker, Jan
author_sort Käckenmester, Wiebke
collection PubMed
description Individual differences in trait levels of openness to experience and creativity have been theoretically linked to dopamine function. However, empirical evidence for this assumption is scarce, especially for causal connections. The present study aims to directly assess the influence of dopamine activity on the established association between openness to experience and divergent thinking (i.e., an index of creativity). We hypothesized that manipulating dopamine activity alters the relationship between self-reported openness to experience and ideational fluency and flexibility. In a placebo-controlled between-subjects design, 193 healthy male volunteers completed four divergent thinking tasks after they received either the dopamine-receptor blocker sulpiride (200 mg) or a placebo. The data revealed an interaction such that openness to experience was more positively associated with divergent thinking in the dopamine blocker group (r = 0.304) than in the placebo group (r = −0.002). Specifically, highly open individuals in the dopamine blocker group reached the highest divergent thinking scores. Thus, sulpiride administration selectively affected divergent thinking as a function of trait levels of openness to experience. Although somewhat limited by the unexpected absence of the association between openness to experience and divergent thinking in the placebo group, the present study provides novel evidence for an association between dopamine activity and both openness to experience and divergent thinking.
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spelling pubmed-72196772020-05-20 Openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking Käckenmester, Wiebke Bott, Antonia Wacker, Jan Personal Neurosci Empirical Paper Individual differences in trait levels of openness to experience and creativity have been theoretically linked to dopamine function. However, empirical evidence for this assumption is scarce, especially for causal connections. The present study aims to directly assess the influence of dopamine activity on the established association between openness to experience and divergent thinking (i.e., an index of creativity). We hypothesized that manipulating dopamine activity alters the relationship between self-reported openness to experience and ideational fluency and flexibility. In a placebo-controlled between-subjects design, 193 healthy male volunteers completed four divergent thinking tasks after they received either the dopamine-receptor blocker sulpiride (200 mg) or a placebo. The data revealed an interaction such that openness to experience was more positively associated with divergent thinking in the dopamine blocker group (r = 0.304) than in the placebo group (r = −0.002). Specifically, highly open individuals in the dopamine blocker group reached the highest divergent thinking scores. Thus, sulpiride administration selectively affected divergent thinking as a function of trait levels of openness to experience. Although somewhat limited by the unexpected absence of the association between openness to experience and divergent thinking in the placebo group, the present study provides novel evidence for an association between dopamine activity and both openness to experience and divergent thinking. Cambridge University Press 2019-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7219677/ /pubmed/32435738 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pen.2019.3 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Empirical Paper
Käckenmester, Wiebke
Bott, Antonia
Wacker, Jan
Openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking
title Openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking
title_full Openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking
title_fullStr Openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking
title_full_unstemmed Openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking
title_short Openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking
title_sort openness to experience predicts dopamine effects on divergent thinking
topic Empirical Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219677/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32435738
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pen.2019.3
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