Marconi Institute for Creativity (MIC), Villa Griffone, Via dei Celestini 1, 40037, Sasso Marconi, Italy.
Marconi Institute for Creativity (MIC), Villa Griffone, Via dei Celestini 1, 40037, Sasso Marconi, Italy; IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Viale Ardeatina, 00179, Roma, Italy.
Neuroimage. 2020 Feb 15;207:116385. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116385. Epub 2019 Nov 19.
Growing neurophysiological evidence points to a role of alpha oscillations in divergent thinking (DT). In particular, studies have shown a consistent EEG alpha synchronization during performance on the Alternative Uses Task (AUT), a well-established DT task. However, there is a need for investigating the brain dynamics underlying the production of a sequence of multiple, alternative ideas at the AUT and their relationship with idea originality. In twenty young adults, we investigated changes in alpha power during performance on a structured version of the AUT, requiring to ideate four alternative uses for conventional objects in distinct and sequentially balanced time periods. Data analysis followed a three-step approach, including behaviour aspects, physiology aspects, and their mutual relationship. At the behavioural level, we observed a typical serial order effect during DT production, with an increase of originality associated with an increase in ideational time and a decrease in response percentage over the four responses. This pattern was paralleled by a shift from alpha desynchronization to alpha synchronization across production of the four alternative ideas. Remarkably, alpha power changes were able to explain response originality, with a differential role of alpha power over different sensor sites. In particular, alpha synchronization over frontal, central, and temporal sites was able to predict the generation of original ideas in the first phases of the DT process, whereas alpha synchronization over centro-parietal sites persistently predicted response originality during the entire DT production. Moreover, a bilateral hemispheric effect in frontal sites and a left-lateralized effect in central, temporal, and parietal sensor sites emerged as predictors of the increase in response originality. These findings highlight the temporal dynamics of DT production across the generation of alternative ideas and support a partially distinct functional role of specific cortical areas during DT.
越来越多的神经生理学证据表明，α 振荡在发散思维（DT）中起作用。特别是，研究表明在替代用途任务（AUT）上表现出一致的 EEGα 同步，AUT 是一种成熟的 DT 任务。然而，需要研究在 AUT 上产生一系列替代想法的大脑动力学及其与想法原创性的关系。在二十名年轻人中，我们研究了在结构版本的 AUT 上表现时α 功率的变化，该任务要求在不同的、顺序平衡的时间段内为传统物体想出四个替代用途。数据分析遵循三步方法，包括行为方面、生理学方面及其相互关系。在行为层面，我们观察到 DT 产生过程中的典型序列效应，随着想法时间的增加和响应百分比的降低，原创性增加。这种模式与从四个替代想法的产生过程中α 去同步到α 同步的转变相平行。值得注意的是，α 功率变化能够解释响应的原创性，不同的传感器位置的α 功率具有不同的作用。特别是，额叶、中央和颞叶部位的α 同步能够预测 DT 过程的初始阶段中原创性想法的产生，而中央-顶叶部位的α 同步在整个 DT 产生过程中持续预测响应的原创性。此外，额叶部位的双侧半球效应和中央、颞叶和顶叶传感器部位的左侧化效应成为响应原创性增加的预测因子。这些发现强调了在替代想法的产生过程中 DT 产生的时间动态，并支持特定皮质区域在 DT 过程中具有部分不同的功能作用。
