Development of a Design Database and Experimental Discussion of Brain Activations for Creativity Assessment

This study proposed a design database consisting of creative and noncreative designs for creative research and discussed the correlation between creative assessment and brain activities using fMRI. We answered the following two research questions: which brain areas are activated when assessing creative designs in contrast to noncreative designs and does social evaluation influence creativity assessment based on subjective criteria. The left inferior and middle temporal gyri (BA 37) were activated when assessing creative designs in contrast to noncreative designs. These activations suggest that an inference process to understand meanings underlying creative designs is important in creativity assessment. The left superior temporal gyrus (BA 38) was more activated when assessing creative designs with inconsistent social evaluations than without social evaluations; whereas, the decision behavior for creativity assessment was robust. This result suggests that the participants might consider the intentions of evaluation of others when inconsistent social evaluations are presented.