Influence of cooperation on the event-related potentials in verbal creative and noncreative tasks performance

Abstract

This study examines the effects of social interaction conditions on brain correlates of verbal creativity. A model of cooperation is considered in the study in which participants were to work together without conferring and create as many answers as possible in creative and non-creative tasks. Subjects (4 males, 26 female) performed two types of tasks individually and cooperatively in pairs (male-male, female-female): creative task – to create as many as possible unusual use of an everyday object, and non-creative task – to list items from the proposed categories. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in each of the tasks were compared between the cooperative and individual performance conditions. The cooperative conditions demonstrated decrease in the amplitude of the P200 component at a time interval of 148–272 ms from the onset of stimulus presentation for both creative and non-creative tasks performance, reflecting reduced attention allocation to the stimulus in the social interaction condition. When performing a creative task, a larger amplitude of the late positive component was observed in the 662–1240 ms interval in the posterior temporal and occipital areas, which may reflect activation of the temporoparietal junction involved in the processes of understanding the other. The number of answers (productivity) was significantly lower in cooperative conditions compared to individual task performance.