Roles of Rational and Irrational Cognitive Styles in the Reactivity of the α Rhythm in Convergent and Divergent Thinking

The roles of the rational and irrational cognitive styles in changes in the α1 and α2 rhythms were studied in convergent (mental addition) and divergent (heuristic task solving) thinking. Changes in the functional activity of the cerebral cortex in convergent thinking were found to be associated with the extent of the rational cognitive style and affected the reactivity of the low-frequency α1 rhythm mainly in the parietal area of the cortex, while in divergent thinking changes were linked with the irrational style and were present in the posterior areas of the cortex in the wide α1/α2 frequency range. When intuition was dominant, more original solutions to problems corresponded to desynchronization of α biopotentials in the posterior parts of the cortex, while low levels of intuition were associated with synchronization. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.