The EEG Spatial Pattern and Psychophysiological Characteristics of Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Humans

摘要

The psychophysiological parameters of the spatial synchronization of bioelectric potentials dur-ing the nonverbal divergent, nonverbal convergent, verbal divergent and verbal convergent thinking have been analyzed. The relationships between the performances of tests for these thinking styles were different. The strongest significant correlation has been found between the productivities of the verbal divergent and verbal convergent thinking styles; the weakest correlation, between those of the nonverbal divergent and nonverbal convergent thinking styles. The thinking styles differ from one another in the topography of spatial synchro-nization of bioelectric potentials. They are the most pronounced during the two nonverbal tasks and the least pronounced during the two verbal tasks. The thinking styles also differ from one another in the degree of the enhancement of the coherence between bioelectric potentials during tasks compared to the baseline (with the eyes open). Some human psychophysiological characteristics facilitating the performance of divergent (cre-ative) tasks have a negative effect on the performance of convergent (noncreative) tasks. The data are dis-cussed in terms of the differences in the level of general activation and involvement of different types of infor-mation processing (simultaneous and successive).