Cortical Activity Changes after Art Making and Rote Motor Movement as Measured by EEG: A Preliminary Study

Juliet L King¹*, Kaitlin E Knapp², Alex Shaikh, Fang Li, Dragos Sabau, Robert M Pascuzzi and Leisha L Osburn

Received: September 05, 2017;   Published: September 18, 2017

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000366

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Abstract

This preliminary quantitative EEG study explores the differences in cortical activation patterns of subjects immediately following art making and following rote motor tasks of coin tossing and pencil rotation. It is hypothesized that a sustained, statistically significant difference from baseline occurs in cortical activity patterns, in respect to power and frequency, after art making, and after the performance of non creative rote motor tasks, and that such differences can be detected and quantified with the electroencephalogram (EEG). Ten consenting study subjects underwent EEG recording prior to, during, and after art making and rote motor tasks. Baseline control recordings prior to either task showed minimal changes in EEG power. In comparison, recording made immediately following art making showed a consistent pattern of increased power over the baseline EEG in specific frequencies over both hemispheres, which persisted through the end of the 12 minutes that data was collected. Recordings made immediately following performance of the rote motor tasks also showed a consistent pattern of increased power over the baseline EEG in specific frequencies over both hemispheres. The increase in power seen after art making was greater than the increase in power seen after the rote motor tasks. These preliminary findings suggest that EEG may be a meaningful tool for quantifying cortical activation in the study of creative arts. This study will be expanded to include comparisons of the data during art-making and during motor tasks. It points to further exploration of this methodology and the expansion of more advanced techniques using Mobile Brain Body Imaging (MoBI) in experimental designs. This technique may provide an easily accessible method of quantitative measurement for evaluating aspects of brain activity and function in the study of the neuro scientific basis of creative arts, neuron aesthetics, and art therapy.

Keywords: Art Therapy, Creative Arts, Creativity, EEG, qEEG, Neuroaesthetics, Neurophysiology, Rote Motor Movement

Abbreviation: EEG: Electroencephalogram; MoBI: Mobile Brain Body Imaging; qEEG: Quantitative Electroencephalogram; DDS: Diagnostic Drawing Series; CRT: Coin Rotation Task; FFT: Fast Fourier Transform

Abstract| Introduction| Materials and Methods| Results| Discussion| Limitations| Future Work| Conclusion| Ethics Statement| Authors Contributions| Funding| Conflict of Interest Statement| Acknowledgment| Supplementary Material| References|