The anatomy of insight: A brief review

Over the last two decades, research in cognitive neuroscience has revealed that insight problem-solving is characterised by a temporally structured sequence of neural events. Preparatory brain states – marked by anterior cingulate engagement and reductions in visual sampling, including increased blinking – appear to prime the cognitive system for the restructuring that insight later requires. As the moment of solution approaches, a second period of sensory gating further limits interference from the external environment, facilitating weakly activated associations to cohere and break into awareness, a transition associated with right anterior superior temporal gyrus activity and pupillary dilation. Moreover, insight has been found to be related to the dopaminergic system, a finding that helps explain the characteristic affective ‘Aha!’ response as well as why insights are accompanied by a feeling of pleasure and are better remembered. Taken together, the evidence points to insight being supported by an evolutionarily shaped system that promotes exploratory behaviour and strengthens effective problem-solving responses.