THE MAZE OF CREATIVE COLLABORATION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF FNIRS HYPERSCANNING EVIDENCE IN COLLABORATIVE CREATIVITY

Creative collaboration relies on idea exchange, shared attention, and meaning negotiation, reflected in inter-brain synchrony (IBS). The functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning technique is used to quantify IBS during naturalistic interaction; however, creativity-related findings are methodologically heterogeneous and sometimes inconsistent. Following PRISMA-style procedures, we searched Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed for peer-reviewed studies (search to January 10th, 2026). Inclusion criteria required studies in or after 2000 with two or more participants performing a collaborative creativity/creativity-relevant task during fNIRS hyperscanning. We excluded non–peer-reviewed, clinical-population studies and studies focused exclusively on physiological synchrony. Search revealed 664 studies, independently screened by two expert raters in Rayyan (agreement 97.14%, Cohen’s κ=.79; N=664). The screening process led to 22 eligible studies; most used dyads (73%) and verbal/communication paradigms (64%). IBS was mostly estimated via wavelet-based coherence (91%). Evidence converged on prefrontal and temporo-parietal coupling during creative interaction, consistent with shared executive coordination and partner-modeling/meaning integration. Meta-analytic effect size showed task-dependent coupling profiles: divergent thinking/brainstorming and cooperative ideation most consistently increased IBS in prefrontal channels like dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), whereas creative communication and collaborative design showed broader fronto-temporo-parietal coupling including superior temporal gyrus (STG), temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), and angular gyrus (AG). Across contrasts with extractable statistics (κ=16), creative-versus-control IBS differences were typically large (median d=1.24; range 0.43-1.70). IBS–performance associations (18 effects) were moderate on average (median |r|=0.39) but phase-/context-dependent, including occasional reversals (−0.44 to 0.85), supporting a balance between alignment and independent exploration rather than “more synchrony is always better.”