e34: Reconsidering Divergent and Convergent Thinking
Wednesday, Nov 19th, 2025
18:30-20:00 GMT (London, UK) • 1:30-3:00pm EST (North America, Eastern)
What happens in the brain when we shift between generating novel ideas and refining them into creative solutions?
This month’s study investigates the neural correlates of divergent and convergent thinking, using EEG upper alpha synchronisation and desynchronization as a neurophysiological marker to quantify each thinking mode. The findings suggest that these two modes are distinct, but may exist on a continuum.
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📄 Eymann, Beck, Lachmann, Jaarsveld, & Czernochowski (2024)
Reconsidering Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Creativity – A Neurophysiological Index for the Convergence–Divergence Continuum. Creativity Research Journal, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2024.2419751
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Creative problem-solving has been described as an iterative process of divergent and convergent modes of thinking. With this opinion paper, we illustrate how some tasks, commonly used for the neuroscientific investigation of creativity might provide a condensed representation of divergent and convergent thinking, respectively. We have identified the following reasons for this: The specific presentation of stimuli and response alternatives within these tasks (“immediate problem space accessibility”), the restricted time on task for participants in well-established creativity tasks, as well as the challenges to identify specific temporal dynamics of divergent-convergent cycles using standard EEG procedures. Based on two recent studies, we propose that upper alpha band (10–12 hz) modulations in particular may serve a) as a neuro-physiological index to disentangle divergent-convergent cycles within these creativity tasks and b) as a data-driven marker for the task demands related to immediate problem space accessibility. Finally, we argue for a view on divergent and convergent thinking that is less of a dichotomy and more of a continuum.
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