EEG signals respond differently to idea generation, idea evolution and evaluation in a loosely controlled creativity experiment

Abstract

Many neurocognitive studies endeavor to understand neural mechanisms of basic creative activities in strictly controlled experiments. However, little evidence is available regarding the neural mechanisms of interactions between basic activities underlying creativity in such experiments. Moreover, strictly controlled experiments might limit flexibility/freedom needed for creative exploration. Thus, this study investigated the whole-brain neuronal networks’ interactions between three modes of thinking: idea generation, idea evolution, and evaluation in a loosely controlled creativity experiment. The loosely controlled creativity experiment will provide a degree of flexibility/freedom for participants to incubate creative ideas through extending response time from a few seconds to 3 min. In the experiment, participants accomplished a modified figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT-F) while their EEG signals were recorded. During idea generation, a participant was instructed to complete a sketch that was immediately triggered by a sketch stimulus at first sight. During idea evolution, a participant was instructed to complete a sketch that is radically distinctive from what was immediately triggered by the sketch stimulus. During the evaluation, a participant was instructed to evaluate difficulties of thinking and drawing during idea generation and evolution. It is expected that participants would use their experience to intuitively complete a sketch during idea generation while they could use more divergent and imaginative thinking to complete a possible creative sketch during idea evolution. Such an experimental design is named as a loosely controlled creativity experiment, which offers an approach to studying creativity in an ecologically valid manner. The validity of the loosely controlled creativity experiment could be verified through comparing its findings on phenomena that have been effectively studied by validated experimental research. It was found from our experiment that alpha power decreased significantly from rest to the three modes of thinking. These findings are consistent with that from visual creativity research based on event-related (de)synchronization (ERD/ERS) and task-related power changes (TRP). Specifically, in the lower alpha band (8–10 Hz), the decreases of alpha power were significantly lower over almost the entire scalp during idea evolution compared to the other modes of thinking. This finding indicated that idea evolution requires less general attention demands than the other two modes of thinking since the lower alpha ERD has been reported as being more likely to reflect general task demands such as attentional processes. In the upper alpha band (10–12 Hz), the decreases of alpha power were significantly higher over central sites during the evaluation compared to idea evolution. This finding indicated that evaluation involves more task-specific demands since the upper alpha ERD has been found as being more likely to reflect task-specific demands such as memory and intelligence, as was defined in the literature. In addition, new findings were obtained since the loosely controlled creativity experiment could activate multiple brain networks to accomplish the tasks involving the three modes of thinking. EEG microstate analysis was used to structure the unstructured EEG data to detect the activation of multiple brain networks. Combined EEG-fMRI and EEG source localization studies have indicated that EEG microstate classes are closely associated with the resting-state network as identified using fMRI. It was found that the default mode network was more active during idea evolution compared to the other two modes of thinking, while the cognitive control network was more active during the evaluation compared to the other two modes of thinking. This finding indicated that idea evolution might be more associated with unconscious and internal directed attention processes. Taken together, the loosely controlled creativity experiment with the support of EEG microstate analysis appears to offer an effective approach to investigating the real-world complex creativity activity.

Study of EEG characteristics while solving scientific problems with different mental effort

“…It is commonly observed that centro-parietal alpha power decreases in tasks with visually presented stimuli. Several studies have demonstrated that generation of ideas in the figural domain is related to the strong decrease in the upper alpha activity at parietal site, which reflect the high visuospatial processing requirements during mental generation and manipulation of visual representation 62 , 63 . In the field of mathematics, researchers found that the parietal site supports magnitude manipulations in arithmetic tasks 64 .…”

Electrical Appliance Switching Controller by Brain Wave Spectrum Evaluation Using a Wireless EEG Headset

“…The power socket consists of 4 individual sockets, and any one of them can be controlled independently. Raw EEG signals, which are the constantly fluctuating potential variance between the negative and the positive electrodes, are captured by the EEG headset from the user's brain, and the algorithm isolates individual brain waves such as low alpha, high alpha, low beta, high beta, delta, theta, low gamma, and mid gamma by applying a series of digital filters to the reported signal [23], and this concept is as illustrated as in Figure 4. Recent advances in signal processing and machine learning technologies have enabled computer systems to undertake further complex tasks, such as EEG data analysis.…”

Network oscillations imply the highest cognitive workload and lowest cognitive control during idea generation in open-ended creation tasks

“…The loosely controlled setting refers to considerable freedom regarding response time (self-paced) and response action (integrating thinking and drawing phases) while maintaining certain degrees of control 40 . The effectiveness of loosely controlled settings was demonstrated in a recent creativity study 17 . To align our findings with other validated evidence, we investigated the regional contribution of brain oscillations in the classical frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, and beta) to the different open-ended creation tasks through TRP analysis.…”

“…An increase in cognitive workload frequently occurs at the beginning and end of idea generation 20 , 21 , an effect that influences the subjective rating of task difficulty 22 . Compared to idea generation, increases in alpha power are associated with idea elaboration and idea evolution 17 , 23 . In addition, idea evaluation is associated with increased theta power over mid-frontal sites, reflecting heightened cognitive control 24 – 28 .…”

“…Major challenges in studying design creation are the experimental paradigm and adequate analysis strategies with the presence of non-stationary data properties related to a free flowing task execution, as opposed to stimulus-averaged signals. A strictly controlled experiment 32 that observes stimulus-response effects in the brain, whereas controlling all extraneous variables cannot simulate some key cognitive functions related to creativity during design creation, such as reframing and mind wandering 17 . In addition, the strictly controlled experiment itself will become a critical independent factor to influence the design results through changing a designer’s perception of the design problem due to design recursivity.…”