Emotion induction modulates neural dynamics during ideational originality

Abstract Emotions remarkably impact our creative minds; nevertheless, a comprehensive mapping of their underlying neural mechanisms remains elusive. Therefore, we explored the influence of induced emotional states on ideational originality and its associated neural dynamics. Participants were randomly presented with three short videos with sad, neutral, and happy content. After each video, ideational originality was evaluated using the alternate uses task (AUT). Ideational originality was significantly higher after induction of the happy state than the neutral state; in contrast, there was a nonsignificant difference between the sad and neutral states. Associated neural dynamics were assessed through EEG time-frequency (TF) power and phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) analysis. Our findings suggest that emotional states elicit distinct TF and PAC profiles associated with ideational originality. Relative to baseline, gamma activity was enhanced after the neutral induction and more enhanced after the induction of a happy state but reduced after the induction of a sad state in 2-4 seconds after starting the task. Our PAC findings suggest that the attention system may be silent after the induction of a happy emotional state to load rich materials into working memory (WM) and active in the sad state to maintain these materials in WM. Highlight Ideational originality was significantly higher after the induction of a happy state than in a neutral state. Emotional states elicited distinct EEG time-frequency and phase-amplitude coupling profiles associated with ideational originality. Relative to baseline, gamma activity was enhanced in the neutral state and more robust in a happy state but reduced in a sad state 2-4 seconds after starting AUT. Enhancing ideational originality requires the induction of emotional states to suppress overlearned associations and strengthen weaker coupling associations, which is the case after the induction of a happy emotional state.