The white matter of Aha! moments

Insights, or "Aha!" moments, are a crucial aspect of idea generation in creative cognition. While functional neuroimaging studies have identified brain regions involved in these insights, their white matter substrate remains unexplored. This study employed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate how white matter microstructure—measured by fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD)—relates to individuals’ tendency to solve Compound Remote Associates problems through insight versus step-by-step analytical reasoning. After controlling for age and gender, left-hemisphere omnibus tests (Stouffer’s Z and FDR) showed significant FA associations for left dorsal tracts composites (i.e., Arcuate Fasciculus, Posterior Arcuate Fasciculus, and Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus III), while MD tracts composites trended but were not FDR-significant (p= 0.032 q= 0.081). Findings point to a left-lateralized dorsal substrate of insight. These findings suggest that insight may benefit from more diffuse connectivity patterns, allowing for broader semantic activation and cognitive flexibility. Our study provides novel evidence for distinct structural connectivity patterns associated with different idea-generation approaches, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the neural architecture supporting creative cognition.