Nettinga Jamie, Naseem Sarah, Yakobi Ofir, Willoughby Teena, Danckert James
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catherines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada.
Exp Brain Res. 2024 Jan;242(1):123-135. doi: 10.1007/s00221-023-06733-3. Epub 2023 Nov 17.
Boredom is a prominent experience commonly reported in school settings and associated with poor academic achievement. Little is known, however, about the age-related trajectory of boredom. Here we examined self-reported ratings of boredom in a cross-sectional sample of 8 to 15-year olds (n = 185) as a function of resting state EEG. Results indicated that reports of boredom in school rose as a function of age. Resting state EEG showed a decrease in theta power with age perhaps reflective of increased control. While no effects were evident in beta and alpha bands, we did observe an interaction between boredom and age for frontal asymmetry such that for those higher in boredom, the asymmetry increased with age. Finally, for theta to beta ratios there were main effects of age (i.e., a decrease in theta/beta ratio with age) and boredom such that those higher in boredom had higher theta/beta ratios over frontal and central brain areas. The results are discussed in the context of prior work on school-related boredom and provide several important avenues for further research.
无聊是学校环境中常见的一种突出体验，且与学业成绩不佳有关。然而，对于无聊与年龄相关的发展轨迹，我们知之甚少。在此，我们以静息态脑电图为函数，对8至15岁的185名儿童进行横断面抽样，研究他们自我报告的无聊程度。结果表明，学校中的无聊报告随年龄增长而增加。静息态脑电图显示，随着年龄增长，θ波功率降低，这可能反映了控制能力的增强。虽然在β波和α波频段未观察到明显影响，但我们确实观察到无聊与年龄在额叶不对称方面存在交互作用，即对于无聊程度较高的人，不对称性随年龄增加。最后，对于θ/β比值，年龄（即θ/β比值随年龄降低）和无聊程度均有主效应，即无聊程度较高的人在额叶和中央脑区的θ/β比值更高。我们将结合先前关于学校无聊问题的研究来讨论这些结果，并为进一步研究提供几个重要的方向。
