Brain dynamics and creativity: Investigating the relationship between 1/f patterns of the resting-state EEG and divergent thinking.

Alpha oscillatory activity has been extensively studied in relation to divergent thinking and other cognitive functions. However, EEG power spectra also contain a broadband aperiodic component that is superimposed with periodic oscillatory activity, and the functional relevance of this component for creativity remains poorly understood. The present study aimed to disentangle periodic alpha activity from the aperiodic spectral background and examine their relationships with divergent thinking, with working memory included as a cognitively relevant comparison construct. We investigated the relationship between the resting-state EEG activity and the performance on a battery of divergent thinking and working memory tasks in a sample of N = 91 individuals. To distinguish alpha-band activity from the aperiodic spectral background, we applied the Fitting Oscillations and One Over F (FOOOF) algorithm. We then used the Structural After Measurement (SAM) approach to explore latent associations between brain signal parameters and two facets of divergent thinking (i.e., fluency and originality), as well as working memory. The results showed that estimated alpha power was positively associated with working memory in both eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions. In the eyes-open condition, estimated alpha power showed a positive trend with fluency, whereas the aperiodic exponent (1/f slope) showed a negative trend with fluency; neither association reached conventional statistical significance. No resting-state EEG parameter was reliably associated with originality. These findings highlight the value of separating periodic and aperiodic spectral components and suggest that links between resting-state aperiodic activity and divergent thinking warrant further investigation.