Group creativity emerges from triple ideation pathways: neurobehavioral evidence from an fNIRS hyperscanning study

This study explored the origins of creative ideas in groups, validating the triple-pathway model of group creative ideation with behavioral and neuroscientific evidence. A total of 123 college student dyads completed a creative ideation task and a contrast task while their brain activity was simultaneously recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results identified three distinct ideation pathways-flexibility, persistence, and convergence-that collectively drove group creativity, accompanied by three interbrain synchrony states. STATE2, characterized by enhanced prefrontal-temporal interbrain synchrony, positively predicted group creative performance, whereas STATE3, marked by reduced frontal-parietal interbrain synchrony, negatively predicted it. Specifically, STATE2 facilitated group creativity through three mediating pathways: (1) the flexibility pathway alone, (2) combined flexibility-persistence or flexibility-convergence pathways, and (3) a sequential flexibility-persistence-convergence pathway with chain mediation effects. These findings provide neurobehavioral evidence for the triple-pathway model, underscoring the pivotal role of prefrontal-temporal interbrain synchrony in group creativity. They further demonstrate the dynamic, multi-pathway nature of group creative ideation, showing that a single cohort can flexibly employ three interchangeable pathways to generate novel ideas collaboratively.