Creating together: An interbrain model of group creativity

• Published in: Neuropsychologia 2025-01, Vol.207, p.109063, Article 109063
• Main Authors: Pick, Hadas, Fahoum, Nardine, Shamay Tsoory, Simone G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.109063

Despite the growing interest in understanding creativity—the ability to produce novel and useful ideas—most research in the field focuses on examining the neural networks underlying creativity in isolated individuals. However, numerous creative breakthroughs in arts, sciences, and industries occur through social interactions, where ideas are generated collaboratively by dyads and groups. The accumulating evidence indicates that cooperative settings foster higher levels of creativity compared to individual settings, suggesting that social factors play a role in creativity.In this review, we synthesize the findings on individual and group creativity and propose a new brain model for understanding group creativity. We extend the twofold model of creativity and suggest that creativity in social setting involves an interplay between idea generation, social influence and flexibility. Building on this model we suggest that group creativity is mediated by activity as well as interbrain coupling in neural circuits associated with associative thinking (default mode network), flexibility (executive control network) and observation-execution (inferior frontal gyrus). By shifting the focus from isolated individuals to social settings, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of creativity and its neural mechanisms. This research direction holds the potential to uncover valuable insights into how group dynamics and social interactions facilitate the generation of creative ideas.