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Changes in the power and coherence of the β2 EEG band in subjects performing creative tasks using emotionally significant and emotionally neutral words

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Abstract

Changes in the power and coherence of the β2 EEG band (18.5–30 Hz) were studied in subjects performing creative tasks under the conditions of emotional induction of different valence and without it. EEGs were recorded in subjects instructed to think up, within a limited time, the largest possible number of original definitions, differing in meaning, of emotionally positive, negative, and neutral nouns using additional words that were selected for them from another or the same semantic field. Significant changes in EEG power and coherence were found in the β2 band. The performance of the creative task without emotional induction led to a local decrease in β2 EEG power in the left frontotemporal area and a diffuse decrease in the coherence of the same band in most cortical zones. Emotional induction had a considerably stronger effect on the state of the cortex than the creative tasks used in the study: positive emotional induction caused a generalized increase in the power and coherence of the β2 EEG band, while negative emotional induction caused a diffuse decrease in the power of this band over the parietal, central, and temporal cortical areas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of the Human Brain, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 197022, Russia

    N. V. Shemyakina & S. G. Dan’ko

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  1. N. V. Shemyakina
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  2. S. G. Dan’ko
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Original Russian Text © N.V. Shemyakina, S.G. Dan’ko, 2007, published in Fiziologiya Cheloveka, 2007, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 27–33.

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Shemyakina, N.V., Dan’ko, S.G. Changes in the power and coherence of the β2 EEG band in subjects performing creative tasks using emotionally significant and emotionally neutral words. Hum Physiol 33, 20–26 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119707010033

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