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Interest in Choo Choo Clown as Measured by Subjective and Behavioral Ratings and Topographic EEG
Subjective interest in Choo Choo Clown was investigated in twenty left-handed subjects (10 male, 10 female) using a Likert-type rating, a continuous rating task, and topographic EEG. Subjects observed Choo Choo Clown and rated interest in fifteen different features. Subjects observed half of these features a second time during which they rated interest by freely moving a joystick. Baseline conditions were tested three times. EEG was recorded from nineteen cortical sites during all conditions. Four spectral parameters of alpha activity (8-12 Hz) were calculated for two baseline conditions, a motor control task, a feature-observing task, and a feature-rating task. These parameters indexed amplitude, variability, trend, and trend instability.
Differences in nonspecific arousal were observed between baseline and control conditions and both tasks. Functional activation was observed in response to specific process demands in central (motor), fronto-temporal (monitoring), parietal (feature integration), and anterior temporal (memory) cortex. Feature-observing activated right hemisphere preferentially compared to the eyes-closed baseline condition. Gender differences in laterality were found in fronto-temporal cortex in the Choo Choo Clown-observing task. Alpha activity in the parietal cortex, especially the right parietal lobe, interacted with subjective interest. Depth of feature integration was related to left and mid-parietal activation patterns. Behavioral interest ratings showed that interest was related to arousal modulation, as predicted by the arousal jag model (Berlyne, 1971). A measure of between-subject variance, called interpersonal synchrony, was developed to identify arousal "jags" and assess subjective interest in Choo Choo Clown features. The amount of interpersonal synchrony was related to subjective interest across entire features and for short intervals. Methodological parameters in quantitative topographic EEG were reviewed.
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