Can clouds dance? Part 2: An ERP investigation of passive conceptual expansion

► Extension of a recently introduced fMRI paradigm to investigate creativity using ERPs. ► First study to use ERPs to investigate creative cognition. ► Passive induction of creative conceptual expansion in participants using novel metaphorical, senseless and literal phrases. ► Categorization of stimuli on trial-by-trial basis according to participants’ ratings. ► N400 as an index of passive conceptual expansion and exploratory analysis of a late sustained negativity component. Conceptual expansion, one of the core operations in creative cognition, was investigated in the present ERP study. An experimental paradigm using novel metaphoric, nonsensical and literal phrases was employed where individual differences in conceptual knowledge organization were accounted for by using participants’ responses to categorize the stimuli to each condition. The categorization was determined by their judgment of the stimuli on the two defining criteria of creativity: unusualness and appropriateness. Phrases judged as unusual and appropriate were of special interest as they are novel and unfamiliar phrases thought to passively induce conceptual expansion. The results showed a graded N400 modulation for phrases judged to be unusual and inappropriate (nonsense) or unusual and appropriate (conceptual expansion, novel metaphorical) relative to usual and appropriate (literal) phrases. The N400 is interpreted as indexing greater effort to retrieve semantic information and integrate the novel concepts presented through the phrases. Analyses of the later time-window showed an ongoing negativity that was graded in the same manner as the N400. The findings attest to the usefulness of investigating creative cognition using event-related electrophysiology.