EEG Based Coherence Analysis for Identifying Inter Individual Differences in Language and Logic Study

摘要

According to Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory by Howard Gardner, human's intelligence can be divided into linguistic, logical/mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic areas. In this paper, two groups of students with high and low MI scores in each area for linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences were categorized and tested based on a questionnaire in an experiment. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from 16 electrodes using Emotiv EPOC for 29 kindergarten children and 9 high school students during the assessment. To investigate the neuro-physiological substrates of intelligence, EEG signal based coherence analysis in alpha, beta, gamma and theta frequency bands was performed. Our findings indicate that the group with low MI score for both language and logic showed wider and distributed cognitive activations suggesting an increased effort in processing a particular task. The group with high MI score for language showed effective connectivity within left-hemisphere and low activation in the right parietal lobe. The group with high MI score for logic/mathematics showed increased frontal activation. Performance in language and logic test was further correlated with effective connectivity in the task specific areas of brain. Based on our results we conclude that a smarter brain for language and logic is associated with the limited but affective connectivity.