Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi", University of Bologna, Viale Del Risorgimento 2, 40136, Bologna, Italy; Marconi Institute for Creativity (MIC), Villa Griffone, Via Dei Celestini 1, 40037, Sasso Marconi, Italy.
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi", University of Bologna, Viale Del Risorgimento 2, 40136, Bologna, Italy; Marconi Institute for Creativity (MIC), Villa Griffone, Via Dei Celestini 1, 40037, Sasso Marconi, Italy.
Neuropsychologia. 2021 Jul 30;158:107890. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107890. Epub 2021 May 16.
EEG alpha synchronization, especially in posterior parietal cortical regions of the right hemisphere, is indicative of high internal processing demands that are typically involved in divergent thinking (DT). During the course of DT, as ideation proceeds, ideas tend to become more creative, being more likely to be drawn from new conceptual categories through the use of the cognitive mechanism of flexibility. The present study investigated whether EEG alpha synchronization can be modulated by flexibility in DT by comparing cortical activation patterns during the switch of category (switching) and the stay in the same category (clustering). Twenty participants were required to generate alternative uses of everyday objects during EEG recording. Differential results were specifically found in the lower alpha band (8-10 Hz): whereas clustering showed synchronization typically lateralized in the right posterior parietal areas, switching induced posterior parietal synchronization over both right and left hemispheres. These findings indicate that the two distinct cognitive mechanisms subsuming flexibility (switching and clustering) are associated with a different hemispheric modulation of lower alpha activity, as switching, in comparison to clustering, is related to higher power in the lower alpha band over the left hemisphere. Switching in comparison to clustering may thus require a larger investment of cognitive resources due to the exploratory process of moving from one semantic conceptual category to another in the course of creative ideation.
脑电图阿尔法同步，特别是在右半球的后顶叶皮质区域，表明存在高内部处理需求，这通常与发散思维（DT）有关。在 DT 的过程中，随着思维的进行，想法往往会变得更有创意，更有可能通过使用认知灵活性机制从新的概念类别中提取。本研究通过比较在类别切换（切换）和保持在同一类别（聚类）期间的皮质激活模式，来探究脑电图阿尔法同步是否可以通过 DT 中的灵活性来调节。二十名参与者在 EEG 记录期间被要求生成日常用品的替代用途。在较低的阿尔法波段（8-10 Hz）中发现了具体的差异结果：聚类表现出通常偏向右侧后顶叶区域的同步，而切换则在左右半球上诱导了后顶叶同步。这些发现表明，包含灵活性的两种不同认知机制（切换和聚类）与较低的阿尔法活动的不同半球调节有关，因为与聚类相比，切换与左半球上较低的阿尔法波段的更高功率有关。与聚类相比，切换可能需要更多的认知资源投入，因为在创造性思维过程中，从一个语义概念类别转移到另一个类别需要探索性的过程。
