Mental activity in different semantic content has EEG-correlates in upper alpha-subbandстатьяТезисы
Статья опубликована в высокорейтинговом журнале
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 14 августа 2017 г.
Аннотация:We studied the correlates of mental activity in different semantic contexts in EEG alpha sub-bands. A person can use two strategies of thinking (divergent and convergent) for mental task solving. Event-related changes in upper alpha sub-band power are associated with sensory-semantic processing. Divergent thinking is accompanied by the increase in upper alpha power, whereas convergent thinking is characterized by the decrease alpha power. In situations when divergent thinking is predominantly used, alpha power in the right hemisphere is higher than alpha power in the left hemisphere. We have studied the dynamics of EEG power during solving of interesting and uninteresting tasks (10-20 system electrode positions O1, O2, P3, P4, C3, C4, F3, and F4). Our participants were high school students specializing in Biology or Physics. They were asked to solve several school tasks of four types: Biology test, Physics test, creative Biology task and creative Physics task. We also recorded EEG during nonsemantic tasks solving as a control. We analyzed the averaged power spectra in 6-8 Hz, 8-10 Hz and 10-13 Hz frequency bands. We used MANOVA and Student’s t-test (with Bonferroni correction) for statistical data analysis. Mental activity in different semantic contexts has psychophysiological correlates in upper alpha sub-band (10-13 Hz). In both groups of students solving of creative tasks from familiar semantic contexts was accompanied by bigger alpha power compared to solving of creative tasks from other semantic contexts. This phenomenon was observed in frontal, central, occipital areas on both sides of the brain and also in the right parietal area (P4). Students specializing in Biology had higher upper alpha power during Biology tasks solving compared to controls. However, no significant differences were observed between nonsemantic tasks and semantic tasks solving performance of students specializing in Physics. We suppose that this effect is due to the different task structures. So we suggest that Biology tasks solving and Physics tasks solving employ divergent and convergent thinking in different proportions. During dedicated task solving, upper alpha sub-band power asymmetry is observed in larger areas of cortical surface in students specializing in Biology (central, parietal and occipital lobes) compared to students specializing in Physics (parietal lobe only). Presumably, this phenomenon is also related with the task structure. Thus, the dynamics of EEG upper alpha sub-band power represents a psychophysiological correlate of the mental activity in different semantic contexts.