Study of EEG characteristics while solving scientific problems with different mental effort

Yanmei Zhu,Li Zhang,Qian Wang

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-03321-9

Yanmei Zhu, Li Zhang + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03321-9

Copy DOI

Abstract

Studying the mental effort in problem-solving is important to the understanding of how the brain allocates cognitive resources to process information. The electroencephalogram is a promising physiological approach to assessing the online mental effort. In this study, we investigate the EEG indicators of mental effort while solving scientific problems. By manipulating the complexity of the scientific problem, the level of mental effort also changes. With the increase of mental effort, theta synchronization in the frontal region and lower alpha desynchronization in the parietal and occipital regions significantly increase. Also, upper alpha desynchronization demonstrates a widespread enhancement across the whole brain. According to the functional topography of brain activity in the theta and alpha frequency, our results suggest that the mental effort while solving scientific problems is related to working memory, visuospatial processing, semantic processing and magnitude manipulation. This study suggests the reliability of EEG to evaluate the mental effort in an educational context and provides valuable insights into improving the problem-solving abilities of students in educational practice.

Highlights

Studying the mental effort in problem-solving is important to the understanding of how the brain allocates cognitive resources to process information
The experiment successfully engaged the students in solving scientific problems with different levels of mental effort
We investigate the EEG characteristics of different mental effort in solving scientific problems

Summary

Introduction

Studying the mental effort in problem-solving is important to the understanding of how the brain allocates cognitive resources to process information. According to the functional topography of brain activity in the theta and alpha frequency, our results suggest that the mental effort while solving scientific problems is related to working memory, visuospatial processing, semantic processing and magnitude manipulation. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a promising physiological approach to the assessment of the mental effort of students in an educational c ontext[28,29] It can directly monitor an individual’s cognitive state by recording the electrical signals produced by the brain in an authentic environment. A similar pattern was found in studies using arithmetic problems or some real-world simulation tasks like air traffic c ontrol[28,45] These studies have shown that changes in the frontal theta and posterior alpha activity are reliable indicators of mental effort elicited by tasks of varying complexity

Methods

Results

Conclusion