Quantifying the roles of conscious and unconscious processing in insight-related memory effectiveness within standard and creative advertising

The Neural Mechanisms of the Effect of Spontaneous Insight on Re-Solution: An ERP Study

The insight memory advantage refers to the situation in which memory performance could be improved by solving a problem with an Aha experience. In re-solution tests and recognition tests, studies demonstrate an insight memory advantage by spontaneous insight or induced insight. For the re-solution test, the neural mechanisms of the effect of induced insight were studied by the fMRI technique. However, the neural mechanisms of the effect of insight on re-solution in the temporal dimension were not known. The neural mechanisms of the effect of spontaneous insight on re-solution were not known. In the present study, we use the compound remote-associated (CRA) task to reveal the neural mechanisms of the effect of spontaneous insight on re-solution by the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique. The 25 participants were asked to solve a series of Chinese verbal CRA tasks and then perform a re-solution test 1 day later. Our results indicated that the solution with the Aha experience evoked a larger N400 in the early solution phase and a more negative wave in the late solution phase than the solution with no Aha experience. In the re-solution phase, items with an Aha during the solution phase were re-solved better with higher Aha rates than items with no Aha. In the re-solution phase, compared with items with no Aha, items with an Aha during the solution phase evoked a larger positive ERP in the 250 to 350 ms time window in the early phase, and a more negative deflection before the response (-900 to -800 ms) in the later phase. In one word, spontaneous insight during the solution phase could promote re-solution and elicit ERP deflection in the re-solution phase.

Long-Latency Event-Related Potentials (300-1000 ms) of the Visual Insight

The line of insight research methods that have high temporal and surface resolution is not large—these are EEGs, EPs, and fMRI, as well as their combinations and various options for assessing temporal events of random understanding. The objective of this research was to study the classification of insight for visual illusory images consisting of several objects simultaneously according to the analysis of early, middle, late, and ultra-late components (up to 1000 ms) of event-related potentials (ERPs). ERP research on 42 healthy subjects (men) aged 20–28 years was performed. The stimuli were a line of visual images with an incomplete set of signs, as well as images-illusions, which, with different perceptions, represent different images. The results showed the similarity of the tests to correct recognition of fragments of unrecognition and double images. At the intermediate stage of perception (100–200 ms), in both cases, the activity of the central and frontal cortex decreased, mainly in the left hemisphere. At the later stages of information processing (300–500 ms), the temporal-parietal and occipital brain parts on the right were activated, with the difference that when double objects were perceived, this process expanded to 700–800 ms with the activation of the central and occipital fields of the right hemisphere. Outcomes allowed discussing two possible options for actualizing the mechanisms of long-term memory that ensure the formation of insight—the simultaneous perception of images as part of an illusion. The first of them is associated with the inhibition of the frontal cortex at the stage of synthesis of information flows, with the subsequent activation of the occipital brain parts. The second variant is traditional and manifests itself in the activation of the frontal brain areas, with the subsequent excitation of all brain fields by the mechanisms of exhaustive search.