Differences in brain information transmission between gifted and normal children during scientific hypothesis generation

The purpose of the present study was to investigate differences in neural information transmission between gifted and normal children involved in scientific hypothesis generation. To investigate changes in the amount of information transmission, the children’s averaged-cross mutual information (A-CMI) of EEGs was estimated during their generation of scientific hypotheses. We recorded EEG from 25 gifted and 25 age-matched normal children using 16 electrodes on each subject’s scalp. To generate hypotheses, the children were asked to observe 20 “quail eggs” that gave rise to questions. After observation, they were asked to generate a scientific hypothesis—a tentative causal explanation for the questions evoked. The results of this study revealed several distinguishing brain activities between gifted and normal children during hypothesis generation. In contrast to normal children, gifted children showed increased A-CMI values between the left temporal and central, between the left temporal and parietal, and between the left central and parietal locations while generating a hypothesis. These results suggested that gifted children more efficiently distribute the cognitive resources essential to cope with hypothesis generation.