Lu, Yiqing (2018)
The Neural Substrate of the Eureka Effect.
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Ph.D. Thesis, Primary publication
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Item Type: | Ph.D. Thesis | ||||
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Type of entry: | Primary publication | ||||
Title: | The Neural Substrate of the Eureka Effect | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Referees: | Galuske, Prof. Dr. Ralf ; Laube, Prof. Dr. Bodo ; Singer, Prof. Dr. Wolf | ||||
Date: | 2018 | ||||
Place of Publication: | Darmstadt | ||||
Date of oral examination: | 16 November 2018 | ||||
Abstract: | The Eureka effect, also known as Aha effect, insight or epiphany, refers to the common experience of suddenly solving a problem. Here we study this effect in a pattern recognition paradigm that requires the segmentation of complex scenes and recognition of objects on the basis of Gestalt rules and prior knowledge. In the experiments both sensory evidence and prior knowledge were manipulated in order to obtain trials that do or do not converge towards a perceptual solution. Subjects had to detect objects in blurred scenes and signal recognition with manual responses. Neural dynamics were analysed with high density Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. We determined changes in spectral distribution, coherence, phase locking and fractal dimension. The Eureka effect was associated with increased coherent oscillations in the alpha and theta band over widely distributed regions of the cortical mantle predominantly in the right hemisphere. This increase in coherence was associated with a decrease of beta band activity over parietal and central regions, and with a decrease of alpha band activity over frontal and occipital areas. In addition, there was a lateralized reduction of fractal dimensionality for activity recorded from the right hemisphere. These results suggest that the transition towards the solution of a perceptual task is mainly associated with a change of network dynamics in the right hemisphere that is characterized by enhanced coherence and reduced complexity. We propose that the Eureka effect requires cooperation of cortical regions involved in working memory, creative thinking and the control of attention. |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-82185 | ||||
Classification DDC: | 500 Science and mathematics > 570 Life sciences, biology | ||||
Divisions: | 10 Department of Biology 10 Department of Biology > Neurophysiology and Neurosensory Systems |
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Date Deposited: | 04 Dec 2018 11:52 | ||||
Last Modified: | 09 Jul 2020 02:25 | ||||
URI: | https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/8218 | ||||
PPN: | 439586224 | ||||
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