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A cardinal feature of adult cognition is the awareness of our own cognitive struggles and the capacity to draw upon this awareness to offload internal demand into the environment. In this preregistered study conducted in Australia, we investigated whether 3-8-year-olds (N = 72, 36 male, 36 female, mostly White) could self-initiate such an external...
Citations
Children spontaneously engage in creative behaviors. However, little is known about the biological underpinnings of creativity in children. We identified neural substrates associated with musical improvisation in children aged 9–11. Participants played a non-ferromagnetic piano keyboard in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner using a musical paradigm that required no prior musical experience, in which they played a rote pattern from memory or improvised melodies using those same notes. fMRI analysis of children’s brains during musical improvisation revealed (1) heightened functional connectivity between emotion and reward brain areas and (2) deactivation of auditory, limbic, and parietal structures, particularly the middle temporal gyrus, angular gyrus, precuneus, and cingulate cortex. Importantly, improvisation engaged reward structures more than the control condition. Neural results suggest that children possess nascent creativity networks that form the roots for later adult creativity networks.
Children spontaneously engage in creative behaviors. However, little is known about the biological underpinnings of creativity in children. We identified neural substrates associated with musical improvisation in children aged 9–11. Participants played a non-ferromagnetic piano keyboard in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner using a musical paradigm that required no prior musical experience, in which they played a rote pattern from memory or improvised melodies using those same notes. fMRI analysis of children’s brains during musical improvisation revealed (1) heightened functional connectivity between emotion and reward brain areas and (2) deactivation of auditory, limbic, and parietal structures, particularly the middle temporal gyrus, angular gyrus, precuneus, and cingulate cortex. Importantly, improvisation engaged reward structures more than the control condition. Neural results suggest that children possess nascent creativity networks that form the roots for later adult creativity networks.
Humans routinely use external thinking tools, like pencil and paper, maps, and calculators, to solve cognitive problems that would have once been solved internally. As many youth face unprecedented exposure to increasingly capable technological aids, there is a growing pressure to understand children's cognitive offloading capacities and propensities, and what they stand to gain or lose as frequent offloaders in the modern world. In this article, we review emerging research on the development of cognitive offloading. Children as young as 4 years can engage in effective offloading strategies that follow principles similar to those used by adults—for example, greater recruitment of external support when tasks are more difficult. However, young children's strategies also show evidence of bias (sometimes inadequate and sometimes excessive offloading), lack of selectivity, and lack of self‐initiation. We also draw attention to important avenues for future research, working toward protecting and nurturing children's cognitive well‐being in the digital age.
