Neurophysiological Characteristics of Competition in Skills and Cooperation in Creativity Task Performance: A Review of Hyperscanning Research

The review considers the studies of neurophysiological indices of human brain activity in different types of joint actions. The results of studies were summarized to describe the neurophysiological correlates of joint performance of creative or artistic (musical) tasks by several subjects simultaneously in conditions of cooperation or competition. Involvement in joint activities presumably causes the neurophysiological rearrangements of human brain activity that are not observed during tasks performed individually, but characterize the situations of interactions between subjects. The nature of interactions (competition or cooperation) essentially affects brain activity. Interbrain synchronization has been found to increase during cooperation and decrease in conditions that do not require interactions. In performing arts (music improvisation), the performers’ coordinated activity, which can be considered as cooperation, evokes a dynamic interbrain synchronization pattern in frontal and central cortical areas mainly in low-frequency (Δ and θ) EEG bands. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has shown that cooperation in performing creativity tasks is characterized by an increase of inter-subject synchronization of the prefrontal, temporal, and temporal-parietal areas of the left and right hemispheres, while no inter-subject synchronization has been observed in competitive contexts.