Influence of Cooperation on the Event-Related Potentials in Verbal Creative and Noncreative Tasks Performance

This study examines the effects of social interaction conditionson brain correlates of verbal creativity. A model of cooperationis considered in the study in which participants were to work togetherwithout conversation and create as many answers as possible in creativeand noncreative tasks. Subjects (4 males, 26 female) performed twotypes of tasks individually and cooperatively in pairs (male-male,female-female): creative task—to create as many as possible unusualuse of an everyday object, and noncreative task—to list items fromthe proposed categories. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in eachof the tasks were compared between the cooperative and individualperformance conditions. The cooperative conditions demonstrateddecrease in the amplitude of the P200 component at a time intervalof 148–272 ms from the onset of stimulus presentation for both creativeand noncreative tasks performance, reflecting reduced attentionallocation to the stimulus in the social interaction condition.When performing a creative task, a larger amplitude of the latepositive component was observed in the 662–1240 ms interval in theposterior temporal and occipital areas, which may reflect activationof the temporoparietal junction involved in the processes of understandingthe other. The number of answers (productivity) was significantlylower in cooperative conditions compared to individual task performance.