Hippocampal-prefrontal orchestration supports higher-order learning for creative ideation

We learn not just to remember, but also to create. Yet, the neurocognitive foundations of higher-order exemplar learning that fosters subsequent creative ideation remain elusive. Across three neuroimaging and six behavioral experiments, we show hippocampal-prefrontal functional orchestration in higher-order learning for creative ideation. Exposure to creative exemplars enhances subsequent performance for creative ideation. Subsequent creative ideation is associated with reduced hippocampal representation dimensionality and strengthened connectivity with the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during exemplar-learning. These effects are replicable across textual and pictorial stimuli and demonstrate an enhanced learning-to-creating transfer of low-dimensional hippocampal representations, alongside cross-phase decoding capability in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings reveal hippocampal-prefrontal functional orchestration underlying higher-order learning for creative ideation that differs from memory and knowledge acquisition.