Effects Of Aerobic Exercise On Creative Thinking And Characteristics Of Brain Activity

Creative thinking,as a kind of higher thinking activity in creative activities,has always been the focus of creativity research.Studies on the effects of exercise on creative thinking have also gained attention in recent years,but existing studies have reached different conclusions.This study takes college students as the research object,aiming at two forms of creative thinking,namely divergent thinking and convergent thinking,through two studies,to explore the influence factors and neural mechanisms of aerobic exercise on creative thinking.In the first study,64 participants were randomly recruited to explore the effects of exercise habits on creative thinking and brain activity.All subjects were required to fill in the exercise habit questionnaire,positive and negative emotion questionnaire(PANAS),and then complete the Alternative Uses Task(AUT),Remote Associates Task(RAT),Compound Remote Associates Task(CRAT),Stroop task,Task Switch task,Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices(SPM).Changes in brain blood flow in the prefrontal area were recorded using near infrared spectroscopy,and the participants were asked to complete the Williams Creative Assessment Task(WCAT).The results showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups in the RAT,CRAT,WCAT,SPM,accuracy of Stroop task and negative emotion score.In terms of AUT,reaction time of Stroop,Task Switch and positive emotion scores,exercise habit group was significantly higher than no exercise habit group.Taking exercise habit as independent variable,divergent thinking Task achievement as dependent variable,Stroop and Task Switch achievement as mediating variable,the mediation effect analysis was carried out,and the analysis results showed that the model was not valid.This indicates that exercisers had higher levels of divergent thinking than non-exercisers,and the promotion path of divergent thinking with exercise habit has nothing to do with inhibitory control,cognitive flexibility and positive emotion.Near infrared data showed no significant difference between the two groups.In order to better explore the influence of aerobic exercise on creative thinking,acute aerobic exercise intervention was carried out in study 2 to further explore the relationship between aerobic exercise and creative thinking.Study 2 aims to explore the influence of acute aerobic exercise on creative thinking and brain activity characteristics.28 subjects without exercise habits were randomly recruited and randomly divided into exercise group(14 subjects)and control group(14 subjects).The subjects were required to complete the pre and post test with a 7-day interval,and the pre-test procedure is basically the same as experiment 1.In the post-test,the subjects were asked to complete IPAQ,PANAS,RPE,FS and FAS first,then the bicycle group did moderate intensity cycling exercise for 30 minutes,the sedentary group watched the black screen for 30 minutes,and the subjects were asked to fill in PANAS,RPE,FS and FAS immediately after 30 minutes.This was followed by a routine involving another version of the AUT,RAT,CRAT,and Stroop tasks,the Task Switch task,while using near-infrared spectroscopy to record blood flow in the prefrontal cortex.The results showed that there was no significant interaction or main effect in RAT,CRAT,WCAT,Stroop,SPM or negative emotion.There was interaction and time main effect on the fluency and flexibility of divergent thinking,which showed that the score of the single bicycle group was significantly lower than that of the pre-test.Significant time main effects were found on the accuracy of the Task Switch under homogeneous conditions and heterogeneous conditions,reaction time and repeat attempts,and the response time of the conversion attempts,total conversion cost and general conversion cost.There was a group main effect on positive emotions between the two groups,that is,after intervention,the subjects in the bicycle group would feel more positive emotions,and a time main effect was also found in the sensitivity(FS),that is,the score of the first sensitivity was significantly higher than that of the third time,and the score of the second sensitivity was significantly higher than that of the third time.The interaction between group and time was found on sensory arousal(FAS).There was no mediating effect of emotion,arousal and cognitive flexibility on the inhibitory effect of acute aerobic exercise on divergent thinking.Near infrared data show that the prefrontal lobe is a sensitive brain region for divergent thinking.Dorsolateral prefrontal lobe,ventrolateral prefrontal lobe and frontal pole regions are sensitive brain regions for single-word long-distance association tasks.Orbitofrontal cortex is a sensitive brain region for two-word long-distance association tasks.Under the conditions of this study,the following conclusions can be drawn:individuals with exercise habits have a better level of divergent thinking,but there is no significant difference in convergent thinking between individuals without exercise habits;However,30 minutes of moderate-intensity acute aerobic exercise inhibited divergent thinking and had no effect on convergent thinking.The mediating effect of emotion,inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility on the influence of exercise on creative thinking is not valid.The frontal lobe is an important brain region for creative thinking,and different brain regions are activated during different tasks.This study expands the exploration of the relationship between exercise and creative thinking and provides some research evidence and new ideas for further research on the influence of aerobic exercise on creative thinking.