Abstract: Numerous cases have shown that insight appears to occur when inventions were induced by heuristic prototypes in the scientific community. From the Chinese legend of Luban invented the saw which drew inspiration from acrodont couch grass to the classical story of Watt invented the steam engine inspired by looking at a pot of boiling water, too many such cases suggested that ‘prototype heuristics’ might be an important way of thinking in inventions. However, the neural basis of creative thinking is still stuck in researches of solving unscientific problems due to the complexity of the processing of the scientific innovation. Based on the latest scientific inventions in which scientists drew inspiration from heuristic prototypes, our group of this project has complied the material database of creative problem for experiments. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP), the present project aims to explore the cognitive neural mechanisms of insight induced by heuristic prototype in invention. Specifically, we plan to investigate the cognitive neural basis of influences on heuristic prototypes, such as activation of prototype, application of heuristic information, catching inspiration under the problematic consciousness, prototype representation, motivation and emotional state, working situation of brain etc. So it has important theory significance to understand the essence of human creative thinking as well as practical significance to stimulate and nurture human creativity to carry out this project.

Key words: invention, insight, prototype heuristics, brain mechanism