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. 2018 Jun 15:9:925.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00925. eCollection 2018.

Examining Brain Structures Associated With Emotional Intelligence and the Mediated Effect on Trait Creativity in Young Adults

Li He  1   2   3 , Yu Mao  2   3 , Jiangzhou Sun  2   3 , Kaixiang Zhuang  2   3 , Xingxing Zhu  2   3 , Jiang Qiu  2   3 , Xiaoyi Chen  1   4
Affiliations

Examining Brain Structures Associated With Emotional Intelligence and the Mediated Effect on Trait Creativity in Young Adults

Li He et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Little is known about the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and trait creativity (TC), and the brain structural bases which involves. This study investigated the neuroanatomical basis of the association between EI and TC which measured by the Schutte self-report EI scale and the Williams creativity aptitude test. First, the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis was used to explore the brain structures which is closely related to EI in a large young sample (n = 213). The results showed that EI was positively correlated with the regional gray matter volume (rGMV) in the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which is regarded as a key region of emotional processing. More importantly, further mediation analysis revealed that rGMV in the right OFC partially mediated the association between EI and TC, which showed the OFC volume could account for the relationship between EI and TC. These findings confirmed the close relationship between EI and TC, and highlighted that the brain volumetric variation in the OFC associated with the top-down processing of emotion regulation, which may play a critical role in the promotion of TC. Together, these findings contributed to sharpening the understanding of the complex relationship between EI and TC from the perspective of brain structural basis.

Keywords: emotional intelligence; gray matter volume; orbitofrontal cortex; trait creativity; voxel-based morphometry.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Brain regions of positive correlation between GMV and EI. (A) The right OFC exhibited significant positive correlation with total score of EI as measured by the SSREIS (shown at t > 3 for visualization purposes), gender, age, general intelligence and total GMV were regressed out. (B) Scatter plots showed the correlation between EI and rGMV in the right OFC (r = 0.33, p < 0.001).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Mediation analysis. Path a, path b, and path c are significant, and path c’ is significantly smaller than path c (bootstrapped 95% CI: 0.01–0.12). The mediation results suggest that rGMV in the right OFC partially mediated the association between TEI and TTC. TEI, total score of emotional intelligence; TTC, total score of trait creativity. ∗p < 0.05. ∗∗p < 0.01. ∗∗∗p < 0.001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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