ERP Study Of Insight Problem Solving In Different Emotional States

Insight is one of the main forms of creative thinking.Since Kohler(1925)proposed to solve the problem of “ Insight ”,researchers have done a lot of empirical research.But in 2004,“ cognitive psychology”(Fourth Edition)author Eysenck and Keane clearly pointed out:“Unfortunately,the study of cognitive neuroscience on the insight problem solving is still rare”.Although,in recent years researchers from different angles on the insight problem solving on the empirical research happened some inspiring changes,but did not reach a consensus,the lack of comparability.Based on previous research work on the insight,to further explore the brain cognitive mechanism of insight problem solving in different emotional states,in order to further reveal the essence of creative thinking,to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for improving the ability of people to solve problems and the ability to create.This study through the video evoked by different emotional states and subjects were asked to score on the five subscales of emotion,excluding invalid subjects below 3 points and the use of a clear picture matched with a blurred picture as experimental material,to further explore the brain mechanism of insight problem solving.The specific operation is divided into three experiments.Experiment 1 without playing video,as a neutral emotional state,main investigation the neutral emotional state and pictures as the experimental materials whether trigger an insight reaction;Experiment 2,before the start of the experiment and the experiment carried out half of the stage to play a positive emotional video,prevent due to the long duration of the experiment and result in emotional dissipation,mainly in order to study the positive emotional state is conducive to the promotion of insight reaction;Experiment 3 is the same as experiment 2,just playingnegative video content,in order to study the negative emotional state is conducive to the promotion of insight reaction.The experimental results show that picture and the traditional puzzles can also trigger an insight reaction;Three experiments according to the “insight”and “no insight” EEG amplitude superposition and averaging,statistical analysis results were significant;And the detection of the difference wave(“insight” minus “no insight”)by N1,P2,N3,P3,LPC peak and latency of EEG components,the statistical analysis results were significant.The difference is,in experiment 2,200-300 ms and 300-400 ms time window in positive emotional state,“Insight”and“no insight”brain wave amplitude is almost similar,thus lead the activation of brain regions in the 700-1000 ms time window was no significantly different from that in the experiment 1 neutral emotional state and experiment 3 negative emotional state.Thus,insight response and early perceptual processing are inextricably linked;And the result of brain activation of topographic map,neutral emotional state is more conducive to the insight problem solving than the negative emotional state,both of which are better than the positive emotional state.