An EEG Dataset on Aesthetic and Creative Judgments of Brief Structured Poetry

Understanding how the brain engages with poetic language is key to advancing empirical research on aesthetic and creative cognition. We present a 64-channel EEG and behavioural dataset from 51 participants who read and evaluated 210 short English-language texts (70 Haiku, poems focusing on nature; 70 Senryu, poems focusing on emotion; 70 structurally-matched non-poetic control texts). Participants rated each stimulus on five dimensions (aesthetic appeal, vivid imagery, emotional impact, originality and creativity) on a 7-point scale. The dataset includes time-aligned EEG and behavioural responses, self-report trait measures, and rich stimulus metadata. Further, the dataset also includes resting state EEG data before and after the experiment. Exploratory validation analysis revealed condition-specific spectral power differences and trial-level brain-behaviour associations. By combining poetic structure, subjective evaluation, and high-temporal-resolution neural activity, this comprehensive dataset enables detailed investigation into neuroaesthetics, cognitive poetics, and the neuroscience of creativity.