Aperiodic EEG activity as metacontrol marker predicts assimilative and accommodative coping strategies

Cognitive adaptivity-the capacity to adjust behavior in response to changing demands-is central to human functioning. The metacontrol framework describes this adaptivity as a dynamic balance between persistence (goal-directed stability) and flexibility (openness to change). Recent research links individual metacontrol biases to the aperiodic exponent of EEG activity, which reflects the brain's excitation/inhibition balance. Higher exponents indicate persistence-related control, while lower exponents reflect flexibility-oriented processing. This study investigated whether aperiodic EEG markers predict coping preferences-assimilative (persistence-based) vs. accommodative (flexibility-based)-in a large sample of Chinese university students. We used structural equation modeling to compare a trait-based model based on resting-state EEG with a task-based model that included dynamic EEG indices reflecting situational challenge. The task-based model offered stronger predictive power. Two EEG markers-rest-to-task exponent change and within-trial exponent change-formed a latent metacontrol factor. This factor negatively predicted assimilative coping (measured via a resilience scale) and positively predicted accommodative coping (measured via a culturally validated dialectical thinking scale). These opposite effects align with the theoretical distinction between the two coping styles. These findings suggest that dynamic shifts in aperiodic activity provide a sensitive neural marker of the control states that shape coping behavior and resilience.