Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi
I really want to do a science fair project on Causes of Migraines: Fact or Fiction
Can I do a Study or do I have to do an experiment?
What do I have to include in a Study?
I need help on what experiment to do.
My problem is: What causes Migraines?
My hypothesis is:Migraines are caused by chemicals in the brain react with the nerves in the brain.
I am having a hard time finding an experiment.
What are some experiments I can do that does not cost too much to do?
Please help.
Ruby

Whether or not you have to do an experiment depends on your science fair rules. For a competitive fair, I do have to say that it has been my family's experience that judges strongly prefer experiments. My younger daughter loves Mars, and she had a judge tell her that her data analysis skills were excellent, but that downloading NASA data sets did not count as doing an experiment.

For your project, I would strongly suggest looking for an opportunity to interview an expert on migraines, such as a neurologist, to refine your topic further before deciding how to investigate it.

If you proceed with your hypothesis as written, it sounds like any experiment would involve brain nerve tissues and brain chemicals. If so, and if this is a competitive fair, you need to read the biological samples and living subjects sections of your science fair rules very, very carefully and make sure you understand the requirements.

For a study, you are looking for existing research data on your topic and re-analyzing it according to your own hypothesis. If you live near a medical school, you might try visiting and asking a medical librarian for ideas on finding research data. If you go the college library route, you probably should think of this as a long-term commitment to science. Again, using my daughter as an example, this is her third year doing a science project on Mars, and her ability to locate, read, and understand research papers improves a bit every year. Your first attempt at looking at medical research will probably be very difficult, but if you stick with it you will be a much better scientist after your second or third medical science fair project.

EDIT TO ADD: Hi, Ruby, I just read your profile. Is your project really due this Thursday? If so, I'd head over to the science budddies topic selection wizard, put your short deadline in the search parameters, and see if you can find a simple topic related to the brain that appeals to you!

Hello Ruby,
Thanks for taking up the interest of migraine. This is an important research area , as 45 million Americans get chronic headaches.

To answer your question, the exact cause of migraine remains unknown. There are more than one factors that plays in role of causing Migraine, which include genetics, psychological condition and environmental impacts. I strongly urge you to learn more about Mirgraine in which you can narrow down which aspect you would like to explore and formulate a more specific hypothesis.

For example, about 50 years ago, Sicuteri and his team showed that during migraine attacks, the level of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, a stable metabolite of 5-HT (serotonin), is significantly increased in urine which means the serotonin level is dropped . You may use this information to design an experiments to determine the serotonin effects on migraine. In fact, a doctor conducted a similar research on that subject . http://www.neurology.org/content/65/4/E9.full

I hope the above example can you show that you don't necessarily need a sophisticated method or complicated theory to conduct scientific experiments, but you need to be well-informed on the subject and think creatively on how to accomplish your study.


Here are some reasource you may find it useful:
Gerneral Info about Migraine (Mayo Clinic) :
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... n-20026358

Headache Diagnosis and Testing ( American Headache Society):
http://www.americanheadachesociety.org/ ... esting.pdf

Biochemistry of Migraine:
http://wwwchem.csustan.edu/chem4400/sjbr/Reed02.html

Pak

Thanks Pak

Can you give me some examples of experiments that I could do?

Ruby

Hi Ruby,
First of all, you need to learn as much as you can about migraines and find out what you would like to focus on . Since you only have 4 days to work on, you don't have many options ; I would recommend you to avoid any kind of experiments that involved animals or genetics.

Have you read the example that I posted on my last post? I would suggest you to conduct a similar type of research to that one, which does not require a lot of equipment and tests. Dietary trigger is an interesting topic and easy to set it up . You can design an experiment to see if certain ingredients in food trigger migraines or not. Of course, you need to justify your choice by giving an educated guess based on scientific knowledge and design an experiment that can measure migraines . In most cases, you also need to have someones that are diagnosed with migraines in order to conduct this type of experiment.

Ultimately, it is your decision to make. You don't need to follow my topic suggestion. I hope this can give you a better idea on how to design you experiment.

Cheers,
Pak