[EEG study of the functional organization of the right and left hemisphere during solution of verbal and spatial problems]

Abstract

In adult healthy right-handed subjects, the expression and degree of synchronization of the EEG alpha-range rhythmic components in different areas of the right and left hemispheres, were studied in a state of quiet wakefulness and during solving of verbal and spatial tasks presented in the visual field. The EEG of quiet wakefulness was characterized by different distribution of the alpha-range rhythmic components in the right and left hemispheres; in the right hemisphere low frequencies (7.5-10.5 c/s) were more expressed and more coherent; in the left one--the high frequencies (10.5-13.5 c/s). The solving of tasks was accompanied--along with a decrease of the whole alpha-range power spectra both in the right and the left hemispheres--by a local increase of synchronization of certain components of this range; the increase was specific to the hemisphere and the kind of task. The increase of synchronization of low-frequency components was observed in the right hemisphere during solving of the spatial task and that of the high-frequency components was noticed in the left hemisphere during solving of the verbal task. On the basis of the data on hemispheric specificity of electric activity synchronization of the alpha-rhythm, a suggestion is made about a different character of the functional integration of the structures of the right and left hemispheres in the process of solving of spatial and verbal tasks.