Wenjing Yang

Scientific creativity depends not only on what learners know but also on how knowledge is organized, yet evidence in scientific domains remains limited. Across two experiments, we examined whether knowledge structures predict scientific divergent thinking and whether knowledge form shapes creativity through its effects on these structures. Undergraduate students completed the Scientific Divergent Application Task (SDAT), which requires generating novel applications based on learned scientific principles. In Pilot Experiment (n = 39), semantic memory networks constructed from participants’ knowledge representations revealed that network connectivity and efficiency were positively associated with better SDAT performance, whereas recall accuracy was unrelated. In Experiment 2 (n = 126), holding informational content constant, knowledge forms significantly influenced performance: both associative and schematic knowledge promoted scientific divergent thinking more effectively than case-based knowledge, whereas schematic knowledge further demonstrated advantages in originality and knowledge network connectivity and efficiency. These findings suggest that knowledge organization, rather than retention alone, underlies individual differences in scientific creativity, and that schematic presentation may support creative application by fostering more efficient knowledge structures.

Herbivorous vertebrates are potent drivers of terrestrial carbon fluxes, yet the mechanistic pathways underlying this regulation remain unresolved. Here, we synthesized data from 138 studies to systematically untangle the complex mechanisms by which herbivorous vertebrates regulate carbon cycling via distinct body sizes and behavioral disturbance patterns (grazing, excretion, trampling, and burrowing). Synthesizing these data reveals that herbivorous vertebrates induce a global “flux contraction,” driving a 23.6% reduction in the absolute magnitude of Net Ecosystem Exchange (|NEE|) by concurrently lowering Gross Primary Production (GPP, 15.4%) and Ecosystem Respiration (RE, 9.3%). This asymmetric inhibition, where production declined more sharply than respiration, suggests that herbivorous vertebrates primarily constrain the overall magnitude of terrestrial carbon sequestration. Specifically, large mammals diminished |NEE| by 21.7%, acting as strong suppressors of net exchange, while small mammals reduced RE by 17.1%. Notably, birds exerted the strongest constraints, reducing |NEE|, GPP, and RE by 37.5%, 38.7%, and 28.6%, respectively. Among disturbance modes, grazing was the dominant driver, reducing |NEE| and GPP by 24.0% and 12.9%. In contrast, trampling and excretion stimulated soil respiration (RS) via physical priming and nutrient pulses, thereby modulating the net grazing‐induced suppression, whereas burrowing had minimal net impact on CO ₂ fluxes due to offsetting effects. These influences were most pronounced in wetlands, where herbivorous vertebrates compromised the net CO ₂ sink (a 30.9% reduction in |NEE|) while simultaneously amplifying methane (CH ₄ ) emissions by 73.5%. This study establishes herbivorous vertebrates as critical ecosystem engineers, highlighting the urgent need to integrate biotic effects into biogeochemical models to refine natural climate solutions.

In the digital era, social media continues to consume an increasing share of individuals' time and attention. As a result, the association between social media use (SMU) and creativity has garnered growing interest in both public discourse and academic research, although empirical findings remain inconsistent. We conducted a meta‐analysis of 31 studies (71 effect sizes, total N = 10,156) to examine the relationship between SMU and creativity. The overall effect indicated a small positive correlation between SMU and creativity ( r = 0.21, 95% CI [0.11, 0.30], p < 0.001). Moderator analyses identified four statistically significant moderators—social media use dimension, focus on excessive SMU, creativity metric dimension, and creativity metric context. Drawing uniquely on research at the intersection of SMU and creativity, our findings suggest that this form of human–computer interaction may be associated with enhanced creativity, although the magnitude of the association is modest. Further empirical work is needed to clarify the mechanisms linking SMU to creativity and to develop more robust metrics capable of capturing the multidimensional and dynamic nature of both constructs.

Scientific creativity is vital for cultivating higher-order thinking skills and preparing students for a rapidly evolving world. Research consistently highlights Intellect as a key driver of scientific creativity. However, the neural mechanisms underlying scientific creativity and the pathways through which Intellect contributes to it remain underexplored. This study utilized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in a large sample to investigate the neural correlates of scientific creativity and explored the neural mechanisms linking Intellect to scientific creativity. Behavioral analyses revealed positive associations between scientific creativity and openness to experience, particularly its facet of Intellect. VBM analyses showed that core regions of the executive control network (ECN) and the default mode network (DMN) were positively correlated with scientific creative achievement. In addition, mediation analysis demonstrated that gray matter volume (GMV) in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) partially mediated the relationship between Intellect and scientific creative achievement. These findings suggest that the IFG, which plays a crucial role in information retrieval and selection, facilitates the link between Intellect and scientific creativity. This research provides valuable insights into the relationship between openness to experience and scientific creativity, offering potential avenues for developing training programs aimed at enhancing students’ scientific creative abilities.

Biological collections are critical for the understanding of species distributions and for formulating biodiversity conservation strategies. However, biological collections are susceptible to various biases, including the “road-map effect”, meaning that the geography of biological collections can be influenced by road networks. Here, using species occurrence records derived from 921,233 plant specimens, we quantified the intensity of the “road-map effect” on floristic collections of China, and investigated its relationships with various environmental and socio-economic variables. Species occurrence records mainly distributed in major mountain ranges, while lowlands were underrepresented. The distance of species occurrence records to the nearest road decreased from 19.54 km in 1960s to 3.58 km in 2010s. These records showed significant clustering within 5 km and 10 km buffer zones of roads. The road density surrounding these records was significantly higher than that in random patterns. Collectively, our results confirmed a significant “road-map effect” in the floristic collections of China, and this effect has substantially intensified from the 1960s to the 2010s, even after controlling for the impact of road network expansion. Topographic, climatic and socio-economic variables that determine regional species diversity, vegetation cover and human impact on vegetation played crucial roles in predicting the intensity of the “road-map effect”. Our findings indicate that biological surveys have become increasingly dependent on road networks, a trend rarely reported in published studies. Future floristic surveys in China should prioritize the lowland areas that have experienced stronger human disturbances, as well as remote areas that may harbor more unique and rare species.

Thought control ability (TCA) plays an important role in individuals' health and happiness. Previous studies demonstrated that TCA was closely conceptually associated with happiness. However, empirical research supporting this relationship was limited. In addition, the neural basis underlying TCA and how this neural basis influences the relationship between TCA and happiness remain unexplored. In the present study, the voxel‐based morphometry (VBM) method was adopted to investigate the neuroanatomical basis of TCA in 314 healthy subjects. The behavioral results revealed a significant positive association between TCA and happiness. On the neural level, there was a significant negative correlation between TCA and the gray matter density (GMD) of the bilateral amygdala. Split‐half validation analysis revealed similar results, further confirming the stability of the VBM analysis findings. Furthermore, gray matter covariance network and graph theoretical analyses showed positive association between TCA and both the node degree and node strength of the amygdala. Moderation analysis revealed that the GMD of the amygdala moderated the relationship between TCA and happiness. Specifically, the positive association between TCA and self‐perceived happiness was stronger in subjects with a lower GMD of the amygdala. The present study indicated the neural basis underlying the association between TCA and happiness and offered a method of improving individual well‐being.

Both psychological resilience and creativity are complex concepts that have positive effects on individual adaptation. Previous studies have shown overlaps between the key brain regions or brain functional networks related to psychological resilience and creativity. However, no direct experimental evidence has been provided to support the assumption that psychological resilience and creativity share a common brain basis. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between psychological resilience and creativity using neural imaging method with a machine learning approach. At the behavioral level, we found that psychological resilience was positively related to creative personality. Predictive analysis based on static functional connectivity (FC) and dynamic FC demonstrated that FCs related to psychological resilience could effectively predict an individual's creative personality score. Both the static FC and dynamic FC were mainly located in the default mode network. These results prove that psychological resilience and creativity share a common brain functional basis. These findings also provide insights into the possibility of promoting individual positive adaptation from negative events or situations in a creative way.

The investigation of similarities and differences in the mechanisms of verbal and visuospatial creative thinking has long been a controversial topic. Prior studies found that visuospatial creativity was primarily supported by the right hemisphere, whereas verbal creativity relied on the interaction between both hemispheres. However, creative thinking also involves abundant dynamic features that may have been ignored in the previous static view. Recently, a new method has been developed that measures hemispheric laterality from a dynamic perspective, providing new insight into the exploration of creative thinking. In the present study, dynamic lateralisation index was calculated with resting‐state fMRI data. We combined the dynamic lateralisation index with sparse canonical correlation analysis to examine similarities and differences in the mechanisms of verbal and visuospatial creativity. Our results showed that the laterality reversal of the default mode network, fronto‐parietal network, cingulo‐opercular network and visual network contributed significantly to both verbal and visuospatial creativity and consequently could be considered the common neural mechanisms shared by these creative modes. In addition, we found that verbal creativity relied more on the language network, while visuospatial creativity relied more on the somatomotor network, which can be considered a difference in their mechanism. Collectively, these findings indicated that verbal and visuospatial creativity may have similar mechanisms to support the basic creative thinking process and different mechanisms to adapt to the specific task conditions. These findings may have significant implications for our understanding of the neural mechanisms of different types of creative thinking.

The Poyang Lake wetland is home to many unique and threatened species. However, it has been severely degraded in recent decades due to the joint effects of human influence and climate change. Here we establish a wetland health index (WHI) for Poyang Lake, which considers five types of attributes (biological, water quality, sediment, land use and remote sensing, and socio-economic attributes) of the wetland to evaluate wetland conditions. Forty-nine variables across five categories were assembled as candidate metrics for the WHI through field surveys conducted in 2019 at 30 sample sites. Principal component analyses were performed to identify the most important variables in each of the five categories as the primary metrics of each index category (e.g., biological index). Eighteen variables were finally selected from the five categories to construct the WHI. The WHI scores varied from 0.34 to 0.80 at the 30 sample sites, with a mean of 0.55. The Poyang Lake wetland is generally in fair condition according to our WHI scores. Sample sites where connected rivers flow into the lake were assessed to be in a poor condition, highlighting the importance of reducing pollution input from rivers for wetland conservation. Scores of individual indices of the five categories were not highly correlated (0.29 ≤ pairwise Spearman’s r ≤ 0.69), suggesting that information provided by each index is different and might be complementary. The composite WHI as well as the individual category indices can provide comprehensive information on wetland conditions that would facilitate the development of more targeted and effective strategies for wetland management.