EEG indicators of the influence of multimodal emotional stimuli on students’ creative thinking

Abstract

Higher education is facing formidable challenges with the deepening of economic globalization and advances in technological informatization. Cultivating students’ creativity and entrepreneurial spirit is a key issue for this new era of higher education. In this study, 60 participants were randomly assigned to an aromatherapy classroom group and an ordinary classroom group. The EEG characteristics of individual creative cognition under multimodal emotional stimuli conditions and their effects on learning outcomes were investigated by introducing dynamic auditory and visual stimuli. The findings revealed that under multimodal stimuli involving olfactory, auditory, and visual cues, participants exhibited enhanced synchronization of α₁ waves, indicating heightened creativity. Additionally, when introducing tangible rewards as a visual stimulus, participants showed a significant increase in the density and amplitude of β waves in the 20–30 Hz spectral range compared to singular olfactory or auditory stimuli, leading to optimum learning motivation and performance levels. These findings provide neurophysiological evidence for enhancing creative learning experiences and outcomes through multimodal emotional stimuli and offer a case study for brain-targeted teaching. This is significant for educators to improve teaching strategies in the creative cultivation of college students, enabling them to design scientific and personalized learning programs.