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Feeling the Insight: Uncovering Somatic Markers of the “aha” Experience

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Abstract

Whether internal insight can be recognized by experiencing (somatic feeling) remains an unexplored problem. This study investigated the issue by examining potential somatic markers of the “aha” experience occurring at the moment of sudden insight. Participants were required to solve a set of compound remote associates (CRA) problems and were simultaneously monitored via electrodermal and cardiovascular recordings. The “aha”-related psychological components and somatic markers were determined by contrasting insightful solutions with non-insightful solutions. Results showed that the “aha” experience was an amalgam entailing positive affects and approached cognition accompanied by a greater mean skin conductance response (mSCR) amplitude and a marginally accelerated heart rate than the “no-aha” one. These results confirm and extend findings of the multidimensionality of the “aha” feeling and offer the first direct evidence of somatic markers, particularly an electrodermal signature of an “aha” feeling, which suggests a sudden insight could likely be experienced by individuals’ external soma.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31500870, 31271079), the fourth high-level personnel training project in Jiangsu province, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2017B14514). The study was also supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu College of China (17KJB90002),  Philosophical and Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Colleges of China (2017SJB0649), Research Start-up Fund in Nanjing Normal University of Special Education and Research Innovation Program for College Graduates of Jiangsu Province (KYLX15_0770).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Administration and Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

    Wangbing Shen

  2. Department of Psychology, Jilin Normal University, Siping, China

    Yu Tong

  3. School of Rehabilitation Science, Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, No. 1, Shennong Road, Nanjing, 210038, China

    Yuan Yuan

  4. Interdisciplinary Institutes of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Huijia Zhan

  5. School of Psychology and Lab of Cognitive Neuroscience, Nanjing Normal University, No. 122, Ninghai Road, Nanjing, 210097, China

    Chang Liu & Houde Cai

  6. Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Jing Luo

  7. Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jing Luo

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  1. Wangbing Shen
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Correspondence to Yuan Yuan, Chang Liu or Jing Luo.

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We declaimed no conflict of interest and sincerely appreciate Prof. Andrasik and the editor handling this manuscript for their comments and help.

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Shen, W., Tong, Y., Yuan, Y. et al. Feeling the Insight: Uncovering Somatic Markers of the “aha” Experience. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 43, 13–21 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-017-9381-1

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