“Free Rein”: A neuroscientific examination of creative brains interacting in real time through hyperscanning during musical concert performances

Comparatively little prior research has examined creativity in real time as it unfolds within ecologically valid settings, like in an artist’s studio or in a concert space. The primary reason for this limited focus thus far has been a lack of neuroscientific tools that are capable of being used in such settings. The novel development of mobile EEG (electroencephalography) devices has vitally changed what is now possible to investigate in this field of study as participants can easily wear these wireless, lightweight devices and move as needed while they undertake their creative practices. “Free Rein” is a collaboration between expert faculty from across five institutions representing the disciplines of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, music, dance, and digital art, where the goal of the project is to investigate the neural dynamics of musical and kinesthetic creativity in a real-world setting. The “Free Rein” project reflects a unique combination of artistic performance and scientific inquiry where several creative performers (one musician and two dancers) wear wireless brain imaging equipment (mobile EEG) while performing an original composition that alternates between learnt and improvised sections. Brain data will be gathered at rehearsals and nine live performances, making this the most extensive longitudinal neuroimaging study of creativity ever conducted that involves hyperscanning, which is a neuroscientific technique featuring the simultaneous recording of the brain activity of two or more interacting people. Six of the performances will be for public school fifth graders as part of Houston’s Hobby Center for the Performer Arts’ Discovery Series and three public performances will be held at Houston’s Midtown Arts Center. During the live performances, artistically rendered real-time visualizations of the data will be projected on the stage and provide the audience the opportunity to observe what is happening in the performers’ brains. The brain dynamics underlying improvised versus learnt performances for all the performers will be systematically examined and culminate with the building of an AI model that is trained on the brain data labelled as learnt or improvised (from the rehearsals and early live performances) with the aim for the model to successfully to categorize unlabeled data (in the later live performances). The findings from this project will provide new foundational knowledge on the brain basis of (a) the creative process within multiple domains of artistic practice (music; dance), (b) how the creative process is facilitated through interactive collaborative settings across domains of artistic practice (music + dance), and (c) how the creative process alters over time (spanning the rehearsals and the nine performances). We expect publication of our research findings in leading scientific and cross-disciplinary journals (e.g., Nature Human Behavior; Nature Machine Intelligence; American Psychologist; Leonardo). Moreover, we intend to present this research at international conferences (e.g., a2ru conference; Society for Neuroscience conference; Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference; ACM Creativity and Cognition conference). We anticipate that this work will provide foundational knowledge and proof-of-concept preliminary data to target large-scale extramural funding for related research that expands on the core discoveries from this project. Potential avenues include applying the insights from this project (a) to other forms of the artistic creativity (literary, visual artistic), (b) to the context of STEM creativity, (c) to hone creativity using neurofeedback procedures, including with the use of AI tools, and (d) to train creativity in service of promoting healthy aging given the association between creative practices and brain health.