Lower engagement of cognitive control, attention, modulation networks and lower creativity in children while using ChatGPT: an fMRI study

Abstract Generative AI can scaffold idea generation, but how it engages control, attention, and memory systems in the developing versus mature brain, and how this relates to creativity, remains unclear. We compared 6-7-year-old (N = 15) children and adults (N = 16) during a naturalistic 5-minute co-creative dialogue with ChatGPT using the same prompt, in-scanner conversation, undergoing functional MRI scanning and their dialogues were recorded. Functional connectivity (Fisher’s z) was computed within and between seven large-scale networks: cingulo-opercular, default mode (DMN), memory retrieval, frontoparietal (FP), salience, ventral attention (VAN), and dorsal attention (DAN). Creativity scores, assessed outside of the scanner, did not differ between groups. Adults showed stronger within-network connectivity in control/attention systems, most robustly in FP, with additional effects in salience and DAN. Adults also exhibited greater cross-network integration, particularly FP-salience and FP-DAN couplings, alongside broader adult-greater effects among memory- and attention-related pairs. During a co-creative AI-assisted conversation, children exhibit a less coherent and integrated control–attention–memory architecture than adults. The combination of similar creativity scores with divergent neural profiles suggests that developmental differences in the implementation of creative cognition may be more pronounced than baseline capacity. Our findings highlight FP-centric pathways and their salience-gated interactions as candidate substrates by which creativity supports goal-directed co-creative dialogue with AI. Highlights Children demonstrate a lower within-network connectivity in the frontoparietal, salience, and dorsal attention systems while using ChatGPT compared to adults. Reduced between-network integration in cognitive control and modulation networks (frontoparietal–salience and frontoparietal–dorsal) in children vs adults while using ChatGPT. In adults, but not in children, higher creativity was associated with stronger connectivity within cognitive control networks. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes Correct description of the chidlgern's age in the methods section.