Cordero Evelyn, Rodríguez Eugenio, Barraza Paulo
Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, 8320000 Santiago, Chile.
Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, 8320000 Santiago, Chile; School of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, 8940000 Santiago, Chile.
Neurosci Lett. 2025 Apr 23;855:138221. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2025.138221. Epub 2025 Apr 1.
Graphic symbolic creation-transforming abstract concepts into visual forms-is a cognitively complex and uniquely human skill. Neurophysiological evidence suggests that oscillatory alpha activity is correlated with visual-figurative creative thinking. However, whether alpha oscillations play a functional role in generating graphic symbols remains unclear. To address this issue, we compared the EEG alpha power of 40 healthy adults while ideating creative and conventional graphic symbols representing an abstract concept's meaning (e.g., the word 'peace'). Our results revealed that the ideation of graphic symbols elicited alpha synchronization, with higher levels in the conventional compared to the creative condition, mainly over frontal-central, frontal-temporal, parietal-occipital, and occipital regions. Furthermore, we observed greater alpha synchronization in the right hemisphere than in the left across both conditions, particularly between temporal, central-parietal, and parietal electrodes. This asymmetry extended to central electrodes in the creative condition, while in the conventional condition, it was more pronounced over parietal-occipital regions. Finally, we also found that frontal and occipital alpha synchronization during the creative ideation phase predicted the subsequent originality scores of the graphic symbols produced. Together, these findings enhance our understanding of the dynamics of oscillatory alpha activity during graphic symbol creation, shedding light on how the interaction between inhibitory top-down control mechanisms and cognitive flexibility processes facilitates the transformation of abstract concepts into visual forms. These findings provide new insights into the neural processes underlying this uniquely human ability.
图形符号创作——将抽象概念转化为视觉形式——是一种认知复杂且独特的人类技能。神经生理学证据表明，振荡性阿尔法活动与视觉形象创造性思维相关。然而，阿尔法振荡在生成图形符号过程中是否发挥功能性作用仍不清楚。为解决这一问题，我们比较了40名健康成年人在构思代表抽象概念意义（如“和平”一词）的创造性和传统图形符号时的脑电图阿尔法功率。我们的结果显示，图形符号的构思引发了阿尔法同步化，传统条件下的同步化水平高于创造性条件，主要出现在额中央、额颞、顶枕和枕叶区域。此外，我们观察到在两种条件下，右半球的阿尔法同步化程度均高于左半球，特别是在颞叶、中央顶叶和顶叶电极之间。这种不对称性在创造性条件下延伸至中央电极，而在传统条件下，在顶枕区域更为明显。最后，我们还发现，创造性构思阶段的额叶和枕叶阿尔法同步化预测了随后生成的图形符号的原创性得分。总之，这些发现增进了我们对图形符号创作过程中振荡性阿尔法活动动态的理解，揭示了抑制性自上而下控制机制与认知灵活性过程之间的相互作用如何促进抽象概念向视觉形式的转化。这些发现为这种独特人类能力背后的神经过程提供了新的见解。
