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Dynamics of the EEG Frequency Structure During Sketching in Ecological Conditions and Non-Verbal Tasks Fulfillment by a Professional Artist: Case Study

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Abstract

A longitudinal study was performed with participation of a professional artist (50-years experience in painting). Twelve EEG sessions of several hours were recorded in drawing/painting ecological conditions. The article provides the development of approaches to study the neurophysiological characteristics of artistic creativity by means of EEG. Changes in EEG frequency structure were monitored across sketching sessions (at least 20 min each, on different days), baseline states (with eyes open or closed), and performance of nonverbal tasks used in neurophysiological studies of creativity. A SmartBCI portable 19-channel EEG amplifier (Ltd., Mitsar, Russia) was used to ensure the ecological painting conditions. To analyze the frequency structure of the EEG in each channel, durations of EEG intervals (ms) between intersections of the isoline were converted to frequencies with a 1-Hz increment, and percentage of each frequency was calculated. Performance of the Torrance test, which is a classical task for studying nonverbal creative activity, was associated with a greater percentage of θ frequencies as compared with a control task of drawing specified objects. Free ecological sketching showed higher percentages of θ (5–6 Hz) and α (12–13 Hz) frequencies in the frontal cortical areas and δ , θ, and α frequencies (2–5, 6–7, 8–9, and 12–13 Hz) in the parietal areas as compared with a control task (drawing lines). An analysis of background states before and after study sessions showed no signs of physiological fatigue, while the percentage of θ frequencies decreased. Subjective assessments of well-being, activity, and mood similarly showed no signs of fatigue after drawing and painting sessions. The obtained individual data confirmed the significance of EEG θ-frequency dynamics both in controlled drawing conditions (Torrance test) and conditions of ecological free sketching and were presumably associated with loading the artist’s visual memory. The involvement of visual/figurative memory is greater in professionals according to literature data. Differences associated with creative task performance were already detectable in controlled conditions of the Torrance test by individual data. The accuracy of classifying several-minute EEGs (splited into 2-s fragments) into three categories (creative, control, and eyes open) was 66.9% when a support vector machine classifier (fine Gaussian) was used, while a theoretical threshold of random classification was 33.3%.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-28-02073).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    N. V. Shemyakina & Zh. V. Nagornova

  2. Painters Gallery “Mansarda khudozhnikov”, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Yu. G. Potapov

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  1. N. V. Shemyakina
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  2. Yu. G. Potapov
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Correspondence to N. V. Shemyakina.

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Statement of Compliance with Standards of Research Involving Humans as Subjects

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments and were approved by the local Ethics Committee at the Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry (St. Petersburg). The participant involved in the study gave his informed consent for participation after being informed about the potential risks and benefits and the study nature.

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Translated by T. Tkacheva

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Shemyakina, N.V., Potapov, Y.G. & Nagornova, Z.V. Dynamics of the EEG Frequency Structure During Sketching in Ecological Conditions and Non-Verbal Tasks Fulfillment by a Professional Artist: Case Study. Hum Physiol 48, 506–515 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119722700050

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