Biology subjects

Street, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Street, M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Short Oxygen Pulses Enhance Creative Problem-Solving

Creativity is central to human innovation, yet it often fluctuates from moment to moment. Identifying simple interventions to reliably boost creativity has broad scientific and societal value. Here, we tested whether short-pulse oxygen inhalation enhances creative problem-solving. Sixty participants performed two established tasks: the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), capturing divergent idea generation, and the Fusion Innovation Test (FIT), assessing both divergent and convergent thinking. Oxygen ([~]40% FiO2) was delivered in 1-minute pulses at 3-4-minute intervals, designed to align with intrinsic brain flexibility rhythms. Responses were scored for novelty, feasibility, and goal attainment using a validated GPT-based method. Linear mixed-effects regression revealed that oxygen significantly enhances both the quality and quantity of creative ideas across tasks. These findings demonstrate that a safe, low-cost physiological intervention can augment creative performance, providing a new link between oxygen metabolism, neural flexibility, and problem-solving. Significance statementHuman progress depends on creativity, yet individuals often struggle to access their full creative potential. We demonstrate that brief cycles of enriched oxygen inhalation enhance creativity across distinct problem-solving tasks. This safe and low-cost protocol increased both originality and productivity, pointing to oxygen metabolism as a previously underappreciated driver of flexible thinking. The work introduces a novel, scalable approach to support creativity at a time when human innovation is essential alongside advances in artificial intelligence.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

A Shared Neural Marker Predicts Creative Performance Across Distinct Problem-Solving Tasks

Creativity is essential for innovation, yet the brain mechanisms supporting its moment-to-moment variability remain unclear. We hypothesize that creativity depends on dynamic fluctuations in neural flexibility, which determine the potential to generate creative solutions. Here, we identify a shared neural marker of "creativity potential" that predicts upcoming performance across distinct problem-solving tasks. Twenty-eight participants completed the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), a measure of divergent thinking, and the Fusion Innovation Test (FIT), which integrates divergent and convergent thinking. Responses were scored for novelty, feasibility, and goal attainment using validated GPT-based automated evaluation. EEG signals recorded prior to problem onset were used to decode single-trial creativity scores. A decoding model based on coherence features achieved robust performance (r = 0.45, leave-one-trial-out) and generalized across individuals (r = 0.34, leave-one-subject-out). Feature weights revealed a creativity potential network (CPN), characterized by frontal-temporal interactions in beta frequency band. Applying the model to resting-state recordings revealed [~]3-minute cycles of creativity potential, suggesting intrinsic brain dynamics shape readiness for creative problem-solving. These findings establish a shared neural marker of creativity that transcends task boundaries and individuals. Beyond advancing our understanding of creative cognition, this work opens the possibility of monitoring creativity potential in real time, with implications for neurofeedback and creativity enhancement in daily life. Significance statementCreativity allows us to generate novel and useful ideas, yet our ability to be creative fluctuates from moment to moment. Here we identify a neural marker of "creativity potential" that predicts upcoming creative performance across two distinct problem-solving tasks. Using EEG and GPT-based automated evaluation, we show that preparatory brain activity encodes creativity potential, generalizing across tasks and individuals. Furthermore, creativity potential fluctuates in intrinsic [~]3-minute cycles during rest. These results advance our understanding of the neural basis of creativity and provide a foundation for real-time monitoring and neurofeedback applications that may help individuals enhance their creative capacity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

A high coverage Mesolithic aurochs genome and effective leveraging of ancient cattle genomes using whole genome imputation.

Ancient genomic analyses are often restricted to utilising pseudo-haploid data due to low genome coverage. Leveraging low coverage data by imputation to calculate phased diploid genotypes that enable haplotype-based interrogation and SNP calling at unsequenced positions is highly desirable. This has not been investigated for ancient cattle genomes despite these being compelling subjects for archaeological, evolutionary and economic reasons. Here we test this approach by sequencing a Mesolithic European aurochs (18.49x; 9852-9376 calBC), an Early Medieval European cow (18.69x; 427-580 calAD), and combine these with published individuals; two ancient and three modern. We downsample these genomes (0.25x, 0.5x, 1.0x, 2.0x) and impute diploid genotypes, utilising a reference panel of 171 published modern cattle genomes that we curated for 21.7 million (Mn) phased single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We recover high densities of correct calls with an accuracy of >99.1% at variant sites for the lowest downsample depth of 0.25x, increasing to >99.5% for 2.0x (transversions only, minor allele frequency (MAF) [≥]2.5%). The recovery of SNPs correlates with coverage, on average 58% of sites are recovered for 0.25x increasing to 87% for 2.0x, utilising an average of 3.5 million (Mn) transversions (MAF [≥]2.5%), even in the aurochs which is temporally and morphologically distinct from the reference panel. Our imputed genomes behave similarly to directly called data in allele-frequency-based analyses; for example consistently identifying runs of homozygosity >2mb, including a long homozygous region in the Mesolithic European aurochs.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2022

Nitrogen palaeo-isoscapes: Changing spatial gradients of faunal δ15N in late Pleistocene and early Holocene Europe

Nitrogen isotope ({delta}15N) analysis of animal tissue is widely used in archaeology and palaeoecology to investigate diet and ecological niche. Data interpretations require an understanding of nitrogen isotope compositions at the base of the food web (baseline {delta}15N). Significant variation in animal {delta}15N has been recognised at various spatiotemporal scales and linked to changes both in baseline {delta}15N and animal ecology. Isoscapes (models of isotope spatial variation) have proved a useful tool for investigating spatial variability in biogeochemical cycles in present-day marine and terrestrial ecosystems, but so far, their application to palaeo-data has been limited. Here, we present time-sliced nitrogen isoscapes for late Pleistocene and early Holocene Europe (c. 50,000 to 10,000 years BP) using herbivore collagen {delta}15N data. This period covers the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition, during which significant variation in the terrestrial nitrogen cycle occurred. Our results show clear changes in spatial gradients of {delta}15N through time. Prediction of the lowest faunal {delta}15N values in northern latitudes after, rather than during, the Last Glacial Maximum is consistent with the Late Glacial Nitrogen Excursion (LGNE). We consider the potential of incorporating climatic covariate data into isoscape models but find their inclusion does not improve model performance. These findings have implications for investigating the drivers of the LGNE, which has been linked to increased landscape moisture and permafrost thaw, and for understanding changing isotopic baselines, which are fundamental for studies investigating diets, niche partitioning, and migration of higher trophic level animals.

biochemistry↗