Divergent thinking training is related to frontal electroencephalogram alpha synchronization.
Cortical activity in the human electroencephalogram alpha band was measured (by means of an event-related approach) in a pre- and a post-test (with intermediate training) while participants (n = 30) were confronted with divergent thinking tasks. Half of the participants received a divergent thinking training (over a time period of 2 weeks) which was composed of exercises structurally similar to those used in the pre- and post-test. Analyses revealed that the training group displayed higher task-related synchronization of frontal alpha activity (i.e. increases in alpha power from the pre-stimulus reference to the activation interval) than the control group. These findings are in line with the view of frontal alpha synchronization as a selective top-down inhibition process that prevents internal or top-down information processing being disturbed by incoming external input.
Fink
Andreas
A
Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Universitaetsplatz 2/III, A-8010 Graz, Austria. andreas.fink@ni-graz.at
Grabner
Roland H
RH
Benedek
Mathias
M
Neubauer
Aljoscha C
AC
D000328:Adult; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*