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Divergent thinking training is related to frontal electroencephalogram alpha synchronization
Author(s) -
Fink Andreas,
Grabner Roland H.,
Benedek Mathias,
Neubauer Aljoscha C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.04751.x
Subject(s) - psychology , electroencephalography , alpha (finance) , synchronization (alternating current) , stimulus (psychology) , divergent thinking , task (project management) , neuroscience , audiology , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , cognition , computer science , psychometrics , medicine , computer network , construct validity , channel (broadcasting) , management , economics
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.