Large Language Models Align with the Human Brain during Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is a fundamental aspect of human cognition, and divergent thinking-the capacity to generate novel and varied ideas-is widely regarded as its core generative engine. Large language models (LLMs) have recently demonstrated impressive performance on divergent thinking tests and prior work has shown that models with higher task performance tend to be more aligned to human brain activity. However, existing brain-LLM alignment studies have focused on passive, non-creative tasks. Here, we explore brain alignment during creative thinking using fMRI data from 170 participants performing the Alternate Uses Task (AUT). We extract representations from LLMs varying in size (270M-72B)...
| Authors | Mete Ismayilzada, Simone A. Luchini, Abdulkadir Gokce et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | q-bio.NC |
| Published | 3 April 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 9 August 2026 |
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