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Creativity enables humans to adapt flexibly to changing circumstances, to manage complex social relations and to survive and prosper through social, technological and medical innovations. In humans, chronic, trait-based as well as temporary, state-based approach orientation has been linked to increased capacity for divergent rather than convergent thinking, to more global and holistic processing styles and to more original ideation and creative problem solving. Here, we link creative cognition to oxytocin, a hypothalamic neuropeptide known to up-regulate approach orientation in both animals and humans. Study 1 (N = 492) showed that plasma oxytocin predicts novelty-seeking temperament. Study 2 (N = 110) revealed that genotype differences in a polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene rs1042778 predicted creative ideation, with GG/GT-carriers being more original than TT-carriers. Using double-blind placebo-controlled between-subjects designs, Studies 3-6 (N = 191) finally showed that intranasal oxytocin (vs matching placebo) reduced analytical reasoning, and increased holistic processing, divergent thinking and creative performance. We conclude that the oxytonergic circuitry sustains and enables the day-to-day creativity humans need for survival and prosperity and discuss implications.

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Creativity can be defined as the ability to produce responses that are both novel and appropriate. One way to assess creativity is to measure divergent thinking (DT) abilities that involve generating multiple novel and meaningful responses to open-ended questions. DT abilities have been shown to be associated with dopaminergic (DA) activity, and impaired DT has been reported in populations with DA dysfunctions. Given the strong association between DT and the DA system, the current study examined a group of healthy individuals (N = 185) to determine the role of repeat polymorphism in exon3 of the DRD4 gene in creativity. The results show that individuals carrying the DRD4-7R allele scored significantly lower on tests of DT, particularly on the flexibility dimension of DT, compared to non-carriers. The current findings link creative cognition to the DA system and suggest that DA dysfunctions in neurological and psychiatric disorders may account for impaired creativity and cognitive flexibility in these individuals.

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Because the oxytocinergic (OT) system has previously been linked to regulation of complex social cognition and behavior, we examined whether intranasal administration of OT would modulate synchronization during a real-life dance paradigm. The current study examined pairs of friends while dancing after intranasal administration of OT or placebo. Motion tracking software and a computational model were utilized to measure synchrony between the partners as manifested in the velocity of their movements. In line with our predictions, OT increased synchrony between partners. This effect was stronger for individuals with higher trait empathy scores. We concluded that the OT system plays an important role in promoting interpersonal synchrony during dance, suggesting that OT underlies the kinesthetic dimension of empathy. Although the biological mechanisms underlying empathy have been studied extensively, scientifically validated knowledge about the kinesthetic dimension of empathy is still lacking. The current study supports the hypothesis that interpersonal synchronization in body movement could be a marker of kinesthetic empathy.