Are gifted individuals less chaotic thinkers?

This study investigated differences in EEG between gifted individuals (mean IQ = 132) and average individuals (mean IQ = 101) in resting conditions and while solving different tasks. Gifted and average students solved tasks representing processing speed, working memory, arithmetic operations, proportional, deductive and inductive reasoning. alpha-power and Kolmogorov entropy measures indicating low deterministic chaos were analysed. In resting conditions no significant differences between gifted and average individuals were observed. Gifted individuals during problem solving displayed higher alpha power (less mental activity) than did average individuals. The differences were most pronounced over the frontal brain areas for the tasks involving working memory and arithmetic operations. Less pronounced differences were obtained using the non-linear Kolmogorov entropy measure. Gifted individuals showed lower entropy, indicating less complex neural mass activity when solving tasks involving arithmetic operations and deductive reasoning. The results suggest that gifted individuals, in comparison with average ones, more efficiently activated task-relevant brain areas. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.