Effects of different foods on Brain Waves?

[moon-]

Hello!

I am about to start my science fair project, but I have a few questions.

1: Do different foods affect your ability to concentrate?

2: Does food affect your brain waves?

3: How do scientists find out if a food is 'good' for your brain?

I would appreciate if you could respond vaguely, because I am curious to find out how this experiment will turn out!

I just want to see if this is a valid experiment, before I buy a $70 EEG to detect brain waves!

Thanks!

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

Welcome to Science Buddies! This is a great project idea, but it is going to be challenging.

Here is a project idea from the Science Buddies website that you might adapt to your project question. You would use coconut instead of peppermint:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary

There are some other possible projects that you might adapt also. Search for "brain" under "Science Fair Project Ideas," at the top of this page.

Also, since you will be working with humans in this project, you should review the information for doing this type of project. You will need to get prior approval before you start your project, and you will need signed consent forms from all of your volunteers.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ects.shtml

Your questions are excellent, and you can probably find answers in the scientific literature. This is what you need for background information on your topic. I recommend that you search for "Google Scholar." and then type in your research questions to find out what others have learned before. Unfortunately, you will have access mostly to abstracts only, but this should give your sufficient information for your project.

For example, here is an abstract of a paper where the authors found that giving gamma=aminobutyric acid to humans helped them relax and improved their immune function.

http://iospress.metapress.com/content/5fhxeck4pv5q2218/

Please do post again if you have questions.

Donna Hardy

[moon-]

Hello,

Thank you SO MUCH! For the quick reply!

The links were very useful! I appreiate the human experiment tips, and the aminobutyric study was a very interesting read. I also think that the peppermint science fair idea is excellent, but from some searching at school, I noticed another group was doing the exact same idea, but with coffee. So i guess i'll stay away from it (for now).

I tried searching up some things on an a brain wave experiment, but nothing on google says if food affects brain wave activity! Do you think it will?

Also, I have an idea that involves this certain EEG machine, but I'm not sure if it is accurate enough;
http://neurosky.com/Products/MindWave.aspx
Do you think this machine be effective and sensitive enough to read little electrical impulses in the brain while eating foods?

Again, thanks a lot for the quick response!

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

This is interesting. This product is sold by a company that also sells computer games. If you go to Google Scholar and search for "mindwave" or "mindset:, try finding research papers come up that use this product. I could not find any. However, the add says that the these products have been used by "300+leading research institution and university throughout the world, in ADHD, Alzheimer's and cognitive stress investigational research." However, there are no literature citations provided. I wonder what the leading research labs did with the Mindwave and why they didn't publish any papers.

You should write to the company and ask for literature references that document the performance of the product, or other information that shows that the product works. Ask for some names of researchers who have used the product so you can verify the information. Ask if the device gives a result that is measurable and reproducible and sensitive enough for your experiment.

You could consider changing your science fair project slightly and design an experiment to test the Mindwave to verify that it works. For example, you could test the math application on a several subject to see if there is a difference in brain waves when doing math problems compared to watching television, for example. If it works, then you could definitely do your project idea.

Donna Hardy