Interpersonal brain synchrony (IBS) during cooperation has not been systematically investigated. To address this research gap, this study assessed neural synchrony during a cooperative jigsaw puzzle solving task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning. IBS was measured for successful and failed tasks in 31 dyads in which the partners were familiar or unknown to each other. No significant difference in IBS was observed between the different types of cooperative partnership; however, stronger IBS within regions of the pars triangularis Broca’s area, right frontopolar cortex, and right temporoparietal junction was observed during task success. These results highlight the effect of better task performance on cooperative IBS for the first time and further extend understanding of the neural basis of cooperation.

The electrophysiological correlates of experiencing novelty in creative advertising were studied in 28 healthy subjects using event-related potentials. Participants viewed images that were difficult to interpret until a description was presented providing either a creative description (CD) featuring an unexpected description of the image based on the original advertisement, or a normal description (ND), which was a literal description of the image (and served as a baseline condition). Participants evaluated the level of creativity of the description. The results showed that the N2 amplitude was higher for CDs than for NDs across middle and right scalp regions between 240 and 270 ms, most likely reflecting conflict detection. Moreover, CDs demonstrated greater N400 than NDs in a time window between 380 and 500 ms, it is argued that this reflects semantic integration. The present study investigates the electrophysiological correlates of experiencing novelty in advertising with ecologically valid stimuli. This substantially extends the findings of earlier laboratory studies with more artificial stimuli.

Although it is increasingly recognized that evaluation is a key phase for a two-fold creativity model, the neural model is not yet well understood. To this end, we constructed a theoretical model of creative evaluation and supported it with neural evidence through event-related potentials (ERPs) technology during a creative advertising task. Participants were required to evaluate the relationship between target words and advertising that systematically varied in novelty and usefulness. The ERPs results showed that (a) the novelty-usefulness and novelty-only conditions evoked a larger N1-P2 amplitude, reflecting an automatic attentional bias to novelty, and (b) these two novelty conditions elicited a larger N200-500 amplitude, reflecting an effort to process the novel content; (c) the novelty-usefulness and usefulness-only conditions induced a larger LPC amplitude, reflecting that valuable associations were formed through retrieval of relevant memories. These results propose a neural model of creative evaluation in advertising: the N1-P2, N200-500, and LPC should be the key indices to define three sub-processes of novelty perception, conception expansion, and value selection, respectively.

Children are at a critical stage of development for cultivating creativity and are highly sensitive to the influence of peers. This study investigated the impact of peer relationships on children's creativity during both cooperative and competitive interactions, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning techniques. A total of 66 children, including 18 familiar dyads and 15 stranger dyads, were recruited to participate in the cooperative and competitive tangram puzzle tasks. The results showed that familiar dyads demonstrated higher originality and lower appropriateness in cooperative tasks compared to stranger dyads. fNIRS data revealed distinct task-specific neural coupling patterns in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) contingent upon peer relationship: familiar dyads exhibited enhanced inter-brain synchronization (IBS) during cooperative tasks, while stranger dyads demonstrated stronger neural alignment during competitive interactions. Additionally, positive feedback during cooperative interactions in familiar dyads was significantly correlated with increased IBS in the IFG. These findings underscore the advantages of familiar peer relationships in fostering cooperative creativity and the benefits of strange relationships in enhancing competitive performance. This study highlights the importance of considering relational and contextual factors in fostering children's creative potential.

Tests of the principles of dual process theory are typically conducted in the reasoning and judgement/decision-making literature. The present study explores dual process explanations with a new paradigm - the Embedded Chinese Character Task (ECCT). The beauty of this task is that it allows the contrast of automatic and deliberate processes without the potential for conflict. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures to investigate the time course of automatic (Type 1) and deliberative (Type 2) processes on the ECCT. Thus we explored whether there were differences in processing speed in neural activation. The ECCT requires the extraction of one Chinese character from another, which requires either an automatic strategy reliant on knowledge of Chinese character formation and meaning (based on the radical), or a deliberative strategy using the shape of the components of the character (based on the stroke). Participants judged whether character elements were included or excluded in test characters. Faster response time were observed when judging 'inclusion relations' on automatic problems supporting the proposal that they required a Type 1 process. In line with the behavioral results, the hypothesized faster automatic process showed the rapid differentiation of N2 and P3b components between inclusion and exclusion responses, while no difference was shown for deliberative problems. Thus, neural differences in processing were shown between automatic and deliberate problems, and automatic processing was faster than deliberate processing.