The effects of the experience of forming visual images on the spatial organization of the EEG

The spatial organization of biopotentials in the cerebral cortex of 23 subjects who were students at the Faculty of Graphic Arts (“professionals”) as well as 39 subjects lacking systematic experience of visual images (“non-professionals”) was compared with the aim of identifying EEG correlates of the experience of visual images (image formation) in humans. Changes in measures of the spatial organization of biopotentials (spatial synchronization, spatial disordering, coherence, and spectral power) were analyzed as subjects mentally composed visual images consisting of two simple graphic elements — right angles and oblique lines. The total number of image elements increased in each of four sequential tasks, from a number which could be analyzed at the conscious level (4–7 elements) to a number exceeding analysis at the conscious level (8–16). Intergroup differences, particularly increases in the spatial disordering of biopotentials (non-linear processes), were detected when large numbers of elements were used (tasks 3 and 4). This measure increased more markedly in professionals than in non-professionals. Changes were significant in the anterior areas of the right hemisphere. Spatial synchronization of biopotentials (linear processes) increased in non-professionals in the posterior areas of the right hemisphere. Coherence and spectral power increased in professionals in a larger number of narrow-band EEG frequency subranges than in non-professionals. These data show that experience of visual imagery results in a more complex neurodynamic process during the activity, with non-linear dynamics and a multitude of EEG resonance systems at different frequencies. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 55, No. 6, pp. 812–821, November–December, 2005.