The Interpersonal Neural Coupling in Group Creative Ideation

Group creative ideation, the capacity of group to produce novel and useful ideas, is essential for navigating challenges and embracing opportunities. Despite its significance, research to decode its neurocognitive underpinnings utilizing interpersonal neuroscience paradigm has just commenced, linking group creative ideation to interpersonal neural coupling. In this perspective, we propose an interpersonal neural coupling in group creative ideation framework, which suggests that group creative ideation is supported by interpersonal neural coupling within three interrelated systems: cognitive, affective, and physical alignments. The cognitive alignment system is considered as the core system that determines the outcome of group creative ideation. Variations in cognitive alignment spanning shared intention, joint attention, shared comprehension, and idea convergence interact with an individual decision making in selecting any of three creative ideation pathways, including flexibility, persistence, and convergence, which collectively determine the final creative performance. The interpersonal neural coupling in group creative ideation framework enhances our understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of group creative ideation and outlines promising avenues for future research.