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Exploring the neurological basis of design cognition using brain imaging: some preliminary results

The study was funded by the AHRC/EPSRC ‘Embracing Complexity in Design’ project under the Designing for the 21st Century initiative. The research was carried out by a team involving Dr Alexiou and Dr Zamenopoulos for the Open University, and Dr Gilbert from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in UCL. Prof Johnson participated as advisor. This collaborative research brings together knowledge and methods from design research and cognitive neuroscience and is part of a research program which aims to explore, develop and evaluate new experimental methods for studying design cognition. The paper is the first in the history of design research that uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate design cognition. The paper reports the use of fMRI to capture brain activity during design tasks and compare them to other forms of problem solving. The results show that it is possible to identify brain areas that are differentially involved in design tasks. These results set the theoretical and methodological foundations for studying design cognition using brain imaging. The paper provides empirical evidence to support our understanding of the distinctive characteristics of design thinking (in comparison to other problem solving tasks) and can contribute to the development of design teaching and practice. The author presented the study as invited speaker in the Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age Conference in Delft (2009). She was also invited by the British Council in Germany to the open space event ‘Einstein and Picasso: Creativity in Art and Science’. The study set the foundation for further collaboration with the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL as well as new collaborations with researchers in the area (particularly Prof Bhattacharya from Psychology at Goldsmiths College).