Psychological effects and sexual differences in EEG values during collage making

Mental and psychological effects brought by collage work were studied with psychological tests (POMS et al), and physiological measurements. Subjects were healthy young people, ten males and twelve females. Their EEGs and respirations were measured while making a collage at their discretion. Before and after collage makings, psychological tests and measurements of blood pressure and pulse were carried out. Amplitudes of alpha waves on the occipital area became large in the resting state after the work. For the male subjects the amplitudes showed a tendency to become large also in the resting state during the work. Frequency of the alpha waves became fast while remembering their own childhood, but it hardly changed while imagining one's own collage work. Ratios of the alpha amplitudes on the right /left occipital area (O_/O_) were large for males, especially during mental calculation and childhood imagery; that is, some verbal thinking in the brain was considered. The ratios of subjects whose POMS parameters showed only a little improvement were also large. This suggested that there was some relation between the psychological effects of the collage work and the manners of thinking in the brain.