Creative experiences and brain clocks

Carlos Coronel-Oliveros; Joaquín Migeot; Fernando Lehue; Lucia Amoruso; Natalia Kowalczyk-Grębska; Natalia Jakubowska; Kanad N. Mandke; Joana Pereira Seabra; Patricio Orio; Dominic Campbell; Raul Gonzalez-Gomez; Pavel Prado; Jhosmary Cuadros; Enzo Tagliazucchi; Josephine Cruzat; Agustina Legaz; Vicente Medel; Hernan Hernandez; Sol Fittipaldi; Florencia Altschuler; Sebastian Moguilner; Sandra Baez; Hernando Santamaria-Garcia; Alfredis González-Hernández; Jasmin Bonilla-Santos; Bahar Güntekin; Claudio Babiloni; Daniel Abasolo; Gaetano Di Caterina; Görsev G. Yener; Javier Escudero; John Fredy Ochoa-Gómez; Marcio Soto-Añari; Martin Bruno; Pedro A. Valdes-Sosa; Ruaridh A. Clark; Adolfo M. García; Laura Kaltwasser; Martin Schürmann; Jil M. Meier; Aneta Brzezicka; Robert Whelan; Brian Lawlor; Ian H Robertson; Christopher Bailey; Lucia Melloni; Nisha Sajnani; Agustin Ibanez

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-64173-9

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Creative experiences and brain clocks

Carlos Coronel-Oliveros, Joaquín Migeot, Fernando Lehue, Lucia Amoruso, Natalia Kowalczyk-Grębska, Natalia Jakubowska, Kanad N. Mandke, Joana Pereira Seabra, Patricio Orio, Dominic Campbell, …

Nature Communications, Vol.16(1), 8336

03/10/2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64173-9

PMID: 41044135

Abstract

brain clocks

creativity

expertise

learning

brain aging

EEG

MEG

whole-brain models

graph theory

Creative experiences may enhance brain health, yet specific metrics and mechanisms remain elusive. We analyzed how creative experiences influence brain clocks, which capture deviations between brain age and chronological age (i.e., accelerated or delayed brain aging). A training architecture combining M/EEG functional connectivity (N=1,240), machine learning, and biophysical modeling was tested on expert and matched non-expert participants in dance, music, visual arts, and video games, along with a pre/post-learning study (N=232). Delayed brain age across all domains and scalable effects (expertise>learning) were associated with creative experiences. The higher the level of expertise and performance, the greater the delay in brain age. Age-vulnerable brain hubs showed increased connectivity linked to creativity, particularly in areas related to expertise and creative experiences. Neurosynth analysis and computational modeling revealed plasticity-driven increases in brain efficiency and biophysical coupling, in creativity106 specific delayed brain aging. These findings provide domain-independent evidence of creativity’s positive impact on brain health.

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Title: Creative experiences and brain clocks
Creators: Carlos Coronel-Oliveros (Author) - Adolfo Ibáñez University
Joaquín Migeot (Author) - University of Chile
Fernando Lehue (Author) - Adolfo Ibáñez University
Lucia Amoruso (Author) - University of San Andrés
Natalia Kowalczyk-Grębska (Author) - Ikerbasque
Natalia Jakubowska (Author) - Uniwersytet SWPS
Kanad N. Mandke (Author) - University of Cambridge
Joana Pereira Seabra (Author) - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Patricio Orio (Author) - University of Valparaíso
Dominic Campbell (Author) - Trinity College Dublin
Raul Gonzalez-Gomez (Author) - University of Chile
Pavel Prado (Author) - San Sebastián University
Jhosmary Cuadros (Author) - Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira
Enzo Tagliazucchi (Author) - Universidad de Buenos Aires
Josephine Cruzat (Author) - University of Chile
Agustina Legaz (Author) - Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
Vicente Medel (Author) - Adolfo Ibáñez University
Hernan Hernandez (Author) - Adolfo Ibáñez University
Sol Fittipaldi (Author) - Global Brain Health Institute
Florencia Altschuler (Author) - University of San Andrés
Sebastian Moguilner (Author) - Adolfo Ibáñez University
Sandra Baez (Author) - Global Brain Health Institute
Hernando Santamaria-Garcia (Author) - Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Alfredis González-Hernández (Author) - Universidad Surcolombiana
Jasmin Bonilla-Santos (Author) - Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia
Bahar Güntekin (Author) - Istanbul Medipol University
Claudio Babiloni (Author) - Sapienza University of Rome
Daniel Abasolo (Author) - University of Surrey, School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences
Gaetano Di Caterina (Author) - University of Strathclyde
Görsev G. Yener (Author) - Izmir University
Javier Escudero (Author) - University of Edinburgh
John Fredy Ochoa-Gómez (Author) - Universidad de Antioquia
Marcio Soto-Añari (Author) - Universidad Católica San Pablo
Martin Bruno (Author) - Universidad Católica de Cuyo
Pedro A. Valdes-Sosa (Author) - University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Ruaridh A. Clark (Author) - University of Strathclyde
Adolfo M. García (Author) - Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Laura Kaltwasser (Author) - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Martin Schürmann (Author) - University of Nottingham
Jil M. Meier (Author) - Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Aneta Brzezicka (Author) - Uniwersytet SWPS
Robert Whelan (Author) - University of California, San Francisco
Brian Lawlor (Author) - Global Brain Health Institute
Ian H Robertson (Author) - Global Brain Health Institute
Christopher Bailey (Author) - World Health Organization
Lucia Melloni (Author) - New York University School of Medicine
Nisha Sajnani (Author) - World Health Organization
Agustin Ibanez (Corresponding Author) - Adolfo Ibáñez University
Publication Details: Nature Communications, Vol.16(1), 8336
Publisher: Nature Research
Number of pages: 16
Publication Date: 03/10/2025
Date accepted for publication: 11/07/2025
Grant note: This work was supported by Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat) # BL-SRGP2020-02 awarded to MAP and AI. AI is supported by grants from ReDLat [National Institutes of Health and the Fogarty International Center (FIC), National Institutes of Aging (R01 AG057234, R01 AG075775, AG021051, R01 AG083799, CARDS-NIH 75N95022C00031), Alzheimer's Association (SG-20-725707), Rainwater Charitable Foundation, The Bluefield project to cure FTD, and Global Brain Health Institute)], ANID/FONDECYT Regular (1250091, 1210195, 1210176 and 1220995); and ANID/FONDAP/15150012. The contents of this publication are solely the author's responsibility and do not represent the official views of these institutions.
Identifiers: 991013166102346; WOS:001587519800024
Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Academic Unit: School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences
Resource Type: Journal article
Data Access Statement: FC data and basic demographics can be found at https://github.com/carlosmig/Creativity_Brain_Clocks. The raw data, as well as the FC matrices and demographic for the music expertise design, are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Creative experiences and brain clocks

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