Creative thinking in Parkinson's disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Overview

1. Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore,Largo A. Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milan, Italy
2. Fraternità E Amicizia Società Cooperativa Sociale ONLUS, Milan, Italy
3. IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi,Milan, Italy
4. Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta,Milan, Italy

Abstract

Introduction: Creativity in Parkinson's disease (PD) has aroused research interest due to its neurological underpinnings, which involve brain regions crucial for creative and divergent thinking (a core-process of creative thinking), and because of some patients who displayed an increased artistic drive following dopaminergic treatment. From a cognitive point of view, creative thinking underlies several cognitive abilities, such as executive functions and memory. Therefore, a better understanding of whether it is increased (or, at least, preserved) in PD patients can provide useful insights for sustaining cognitive functioning. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether PD patients regularly assuming dopaminergic medications present higher divergent thinking skills than healthy controls.

Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines to provide a statistical synthesis of the studies. Study quality was assessed using the QUADAS -2 tool.

Results: Ten studies were included in the meta-analysis, which indicated the absence of significant differences between PD patients and healthy controls in tasks assessing divergent thinking (Cohen’s d = -0,095 (95% CI: -0,308, 0,118)).

Conclusions: Such findings support the notion that divergent thinking can be spared by the disease, maybe constituting a possible resource for patients’ cognitive functioning, as it involves those cognitive abilities that can compensate impairments in PD. Clinical implications and guidance to further studies and interventions to support PD patients’ cognition were discussed.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10072-026-09234-7.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Data

Datasets cited

• osf:km3j6, at OSF; found in “Data Availability”

Data Availability

The dataset generated and analysed during the current study is available in the OSF repository, https://osf.io/km3j6/?view_only=d01f4b2436ba4105970505e027214420. The review protocol was registered in PROSPERO: CRD42022319590, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=319590. Other data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 2, 28 September 2026

• Publisher: n/a → Springer Science+Business Media

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 6 authors, 6 keywords, 4 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 76 references.

Cite

This paper

Colautti, L., Magenes, S., Pagnini, F., Silveri, M. C., Giovagnoli, A. R., & Antonietti, A. (2026). Creative thinking in Parkinson's disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, 47(8), 632. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-026-09234-7

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