Alpha ERS-ERD Pattern during Divergent and Convergent Thinking Depends on Individual Differences on Metacontrol

The role of metacontrol in creativity is theoretically assumed, but experimental evidence is still lacking. In this study, we investigated how metacontrol affects creativity from the perspective of individual differences. Sixty participants completed the metacontrol task, which was used to divide participants into a high-metacontrol group (HMC) versus a low (LMC) group. Then, these participants performed the alternate uses task (AUT; divergent thinking) and the remote associates test (RAT; convergent thinking), while their EEG results were recorded continuously. Regarding their behavior, the HMC group showed superior creative performance in the AUT and RAT, compared with the LMC group. For the electrophysiology, the HMC group showed larger stimulus-locked P1 and P3 amplitudes than the LMC group. Furthermore, the HMC group exhibited smaller alpha desynchronization (ERD) than the LMC group at the initial stages of the AUT task, followed by a flexible switching between alpha synchronization and desynchronization (ERS-ERD) during the process of selective retention in the AUT. In addition, the HMC group evoked smaller alpha ERD during the initial retrieval and the backtracking process in the RAT, associated with cognitive control adaptability. The aforementioned results indicate that metacontrol reliably contributes to the idea generation process, and HMC individuals could flexibly adjust their cognitive control strategies according to the demand for creative idea generation.