关键词: 创造性顿悟, 具身认知, 身体结构, 身体状态, 身体经验

Abstract: In creative insight domain, the question of how to access creative insight seems more important than the question of what happens at that moment. In embodied cognitive theory, the human body and the interactive experiences between body and world provide a scafford for and have influence on cognition processing. Within this theoretical framework, in this article we review two embodied approaches to creative insight: the first one refers to bodily structures and states and the second one refers to the interactive experiences between body and world. In terms of the first approach, the change in some brain structures such as damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or decreased excitability on the left side together with increased excitability on the right side of the anterior temporal lobes facilitates insight. Individuals in special physiological states such as moderate intoxication, sleep or the nonoptimal time of day have better performance on creative insight, or some other states like meditation (or mindfulness) and positive affection can improve insight problem solving. In terms of the second approach, the interaction between body and physical props enables construction of counterexamples, thus improving insight solutions. Insight can occur when the bodily action activates the perceptual and motor pattern related to solution (e.g., swinging arms in solving the two string problem), or some gestures such as arm flexion rather than arm extension can bolster insight, or insight can also be elicited by activating the insightrelated abstract concept in a metaphorical way (e.g., exposure to an illuminating lightbulb), or multiculture experiences can bolster insight. In light of the embodied cognition theory and insightrelevant studies, human body and the bodily experience through the world play great role in insight occurrence. The embodied approach to insight provides a new perspective to reveal the insight mechanism. Future studies should be conducted to identify more bodyrelevant variables on creative insight and apply the cognitive neuroscience approach to the exploration of the embodied mechanisms of creative insight.

Key words: Creative insight, embodied cognition, bodily structure, bodily states, bodily experiences