fMRI data for creativity reconfigure new conceptual knowledge through hippocampus-middle temporal gyrus

Creativity is critical for human development and social progress. There is a growing interest in studies on the neural mechanism of creativity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, it is hard to investigate the neural basis of creativity as high-level cognitive processing in the human brain. Based on the two-fundamental feature of novelty and usefulness in creativity [1–5]. We could reveal the neural mechanism of creativity to investigate how the novelty and usefulness processing during creativity activity. The dataset contains two-part of data. First, online scanning data includes the fMRI scans and T1-weighted anatomical scans acquired under participants comprehend the three type of creative designs. The creative design includes familiar and useful design (FU), novel and useless design (NS), novel and useful design (NU). Participants were asked to comprehend each design throughout the entire 6 s and respond to a usefulness evaluation for every design via pressing the yes or no button. The three types of designs were pseudo-random presented during scanning. Second, post-test data includes the behavioral data of novelty and usefulness evaluation in a 5-scaled test using the same creative design pictures in fMRI scanning by the same group of participants. The dataset is meant to be used to assess the neural basis of novelty and usefulness features processing in creativity; it also allows for empirical investigation of how the neural bases responses to the different novel signal (e.g., usefulness signal and useless signal), the human brain distinguishes the familiar or novel signal. The dataset is a supplement to the research findings in the “The function of the hippocampus and middle temporal gyrus in forming new associations and concepts during the processing of novelty and usefulness features in creative designs” published in NeuroImage [6].