A Thirst for Knowledge: Grounding Curiosity, Creativity, and Aesthetics in Memory and Reward Neural Systems

Curiosity, creativity, and aesthetics are typically studied separately. The extent to which they share psychological and neural mechanisms is not well understood, despite all being linked to broader personality characteristics like Openness to Experience and are driven by a desire for information and knowledge. Here, we review evidence and advance the hypothesis that creative and aesthetic experiences depend on curiosity as a driver of information-seeking and exploratory behavior because they are exemplars of situations that highlight gaps in knowledge or require problem finding and solving. At the psychological level, we link curiosity, creativity, and aesthetics to Openness to Experience and to ones’ semantic memory. We demonstrate how Openness is a critical personality trait in enhancing curious behaviors, as well as creative and aesthetic acts. Furthermore, we highlight the role of semantic memory in such information-seeking behavior, leading to knowledge acquisition. At the neural level, we examine the neurobiological underpinnings of these constructs in relation to the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system, as related to information-seeking. Finally, we link creativity and aesthetic experience and discuss how stages of art viewing and making relate to curiosity. Thus, we argue that information-seeking, the key behavior attributed to curiosity, motivates both creative and aesthetic activities.