DOI: 10.15129/ebb043dd-9463-42f9-8954-5b23e98c244e
title: Data for: "Functional activity and connectivity during ideation in professional product design engineers"

description: STUDY AIM
This study aimed to examine the brain regions activated during ideation in experienced product design engineers using fMRI. We compared neural activations during ideation with three control conditions (rest, working memory and visuospatial processing). We used Psychophysiological Interactions analysis to identify increased functional connectivity associated with ideation. 

DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY
Thirty two product designer engineers participated. They were right-handed and had no history of neurological impairment. The study consisted of a structural MRI, a functional MRI, and a post-scan sketching session. The functional scanning run used an event-related design with four different conditions: 1) design ideation, 2) working memory, 3) visuospatial processing and 4) baseline (rest). There were 20 trials per condition, which were presented in a pseudo-randomised order. 
The design ideation condition consisted of a series of ideation tasks requiring participants to generate novel and feasible concepts in response to problem-oriented design briefs. Each design brief was presented twice, with participants being required to generate a different concept each time. The ideation phase lasted up to 40s after which the participant was given 20 seconds to provide a brief verbal summary of the concept they had just generated which was recorded. 
In the working memory task (2-back) a series of shapes appeared on the screen one at a time and participants were required to press the right response button if they judged the shape on the screen to be the same as the one presented two trials previously (match) and to not respond to indicate they were different. Each shape was presented on the screen for 1000ms, followed by a fixation cross for 2000ms. 
During the visuospatial task (mental rotation) participants were presented with a series of shape pairs and asked to judge whether the two shapes were the same or different. Throughout each block of trials, the shape on the left remained constant whereas the shape on the right was either rotated so that it could be made to match the one on the left by changing its orientation (match) or rotated and flipped/mirrored, such that it did not match the shape on the left regardless of orientation (no match). Each shape pair was presented on the screen for 2500ms followed by a fixation cross for 500ms. 
The ideation, working memory and visuospatial tasks were presented in a pseudo-randomised order such that no task of the same type was presented back-to-back, and that the first presentation of any ideation task was always followed by the second presentation of that same task on the next ideation trial. In addition, 20 baseline rest periods (8s each) were presented after every three main task trials. After the scanning session participants were asked to sketch the design ideas they had generated using their audio recordings as a memory aid. 
The open-source Matlab toolbox Cogent (http://www.vislab.ucl.ac.uk/cogent.php) was used to present task descriptions to participants in the scanner, and to collect data on their response times. Functional and structural imaging was carried out using a Siemens 3T scanner with a standard head coil. T2* weighted image volumes with BOLD contrast were acquired parallel to the anterior commissure/posterior commissure (AC/PC line) using an echo-planar sequence (repetition time [TR]= 2.39 s, echo time [TE]= 26ms). Each volume comprised 35 axial slices (3mm thick) covering the whole brain excluding the ventral parts of the cerebellum. Anatomical T1 weighted images were collected during the structural scanning session. 

DATASET STRUCTURE
The dataset is organised into folders and files as outlined below.

Folder 1 – Participant response files:
A Microsoft excel file describing the response data variables. A subfolder containing a Microsoft Excel file for each participant detailing (1) what tasks they completed in what order; and (2) response time data for each task. Each file is named with the participant ID.

Folders 2,3,4 Scans:
Subfolders containing the raw fMRI data collected for each participant in DICOM format. Folders are named with the participant ID number.

DATA ANONYMISATION AND CONSENT
All participant data in this dataset has been fully anonymised. All participants gave written informed consent prior to participation.

DATASET OWNERSHIP
The dataset is owned by the University of Strathclyde.