Characteristics of EEG signals during tough and easy linguistic problem solving

In the present EEG coherence study, we investigate the brain activation patterns and resource allocation strategies of high-intelligent individuals as compared to low-intelligent individuals while they solve linguistic problems with two levels of complexity. Results of our study supports both efficiency and resource hypothesis. Our findings suggest that high intelligent individuals allocate fewer resources and recruit minimum task relevant brain areas when the task is perceived easy but allocate more resources and recruit several brain areas when the task demand is high. Low intelligent individuals, on the contrary, do not modulate their resource allocation. These results strongly suggest that high intelligent individuals modulate their resource allocation strategies based on the perceived complexity of the task. The study also shows that EEG coherence can be a good indicator to identify intelligence of individuals in a given task.