Brain Activation and Cognitive Load during EEG Measured Creativity Tasks Accompanied by Relaxation Music

摘要

Creativity tasks require specific imagery, memory and semantic processes, as it has been revealed by various neuroscientific studies. There is significant evidence that an increase of spectral power in the EEG alpha band is inter-related with creative ideation as a form of top-down activity. However, any creational task demands a certain level of cognitive load or workload for memory retrieval, mental schemes design, semantic processing, image formation and concept construct. This paper aims to measure cognitive load during a series of divergent thinking creative tasks accompanied by relaxation music, to examine event-related brain activation and raw power measures in the baseline relaxation, alternate uses creative and verbalization stages of the proposed experimental procedure, as well as to study task-related synchronization/desynchronization between these phases. Also, its purpose is to verify whether slow relaxing music influences creativity, with effects in the brainwaves amplitude variations, especially in the alpha (8-12 Hz) frequency band. We concluded that relaxing music induces creativity and causes an increase in the alpha brain waves for innovative ideas generation and verbalization with a diminished level of cognitive load.