Strategy and results: Sex differences in electrographic correlates of verbal and figural creativity

Sex differences in electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of creativity were studied using verbal and figural divergent tasks to be performed in accordance with the instructions to “give any solution” or “give an original solution.” The common effect was a greater activity of the right hemisphere, which did not depend on the sex, task type, or instructions for performance of the tasks. The α₂ and β₂ rhythms were the main EEG frequency correlates of creative thinking; the degree and sign of their reactivity depended on the aforementioned factors. Although the creative abilities in men and women were similar under test conditions, the EEG correlates of both figural and verbal tasks were sex-dependent. A high reactivity of the α₂ rhythm was more marked during verbal creative thinking in women; and that of the β₂ rhythm, during figural creative thinking in men. The instruction-related improvement of the critical selection of solutions was to a greater extent reflected by changes in the cortical activity, more pronounced in the frontal cortex in the women. Thus, the same creative productivity in men and women was mediated by different strategies of performance of both figural and verbal tasks, and the sex-related differences in these strategies remained even when the motivation for creativity was changed.