Neurophysiological Exploration of Creativity in Engineering

Creativity plays a crucial role in engineering education by promoting innovative thinking allowing students to go beyond conventional approaches. A profound understanding of creativity requires examining its corresponding brain behavior. Despite prior research, the neural correlates of creativity are still largely unexplored. We explored brain dynamics associated with creativity through electroencephalography (EEG). We employed a reliable dataset from loosely controlled figural creativity experiments and introduced innovative frequency-based features – the alpha power over the other EEG sub-bands. Results, consistent with previous studies, showed: 1) The average and standard deviation of our proposed features are higher in idea generation, 2) The temporal and parietal lobes contain more significant features than the other brain lobes, 3) Gamma and beta bands effectively represent brain activity in creativity. Our novel method offers a new perspective bridging existing gaps and presenting an overview of brain dynamics in creativity, serving as a foundation for future research.