EEG Analysis on

Brain.fm (Focus)

Introduction

17subjectsweretestedtomeasureeffectsofaBrain.fmfocussessiononcognition.
With4additionalsubjects,werecordedEEGdataduringbaselineandwhilelisteningtothe
Focussessionforthedifferenttestsandconditions
3cognitivetestsweretakeninrandomorder:

ReactionTime(RT),GoNoGo(GNG),VisualPatternRecognition(VPR)
Reactiontimewasmeasuredforall3tests,andforthelast2teststheprecision(in
percentage)wasalsomeasured.

Thetestsweretakenunder3conditions(alsorandomlyassigned):
Music(teststakenwhilethesubjectswerelisteningtothefrequencyandamplitude
modulatedBrain.fmfocussession)
Placebo(testsweretakenwhilethesubjectswerelisteningtosimilarmusicbutwithout
frequencyoramplitudemodulation)
NoMusic

Results

Theresultsareillustratedinthefollowingslides.
Inall3teststhesubjectsperformedstatisticallysignificantlybetterundertheMusic
conditionthanunderPlaceboandmuchbetterundertheseconditionsthanwithNo
Music.
Averages,standarddeviationsandthestatisticalvaluesofthetestsaregiven.
Parametrictestswereperformedtodeterminethestatisticalsignificanceofthenull
hypothesisthatdatainthedifferencexyarearandomsamplefromanormal
distributionwithmean0andunknownvariance,againstthealternativethatthemean
isnot0.h=1indicatesarejectionofthenullhypothesisatthe5%significancelevel.

VisualReactionTimeStatistics

Music(mean)

296.4382ms

Placebo(mean)

306.0659ms

NoMusic(mean)

307.6381ms

Music

44.9236ms

Placebo

58.1920ms

NoMusic

52.7085ms

MusicPlacebo

h1=1,p=0.0441

MusicNoMusic

h2=1,p=0.0023

Graphs

Theresultsareillustratedinboxplots.
Oneachbox,thecentralmarkisthemedian,theedgesoftheboxarethe25thand
75thpercentiles,thewhiskersextendtothemostextremedatapointsnotconsidered
outliers,andoutliersareplottedindividuallyasredmarks.
2boxplotsareprovidedforthe3testsandcomparisonbetweenthecondition
MusicPlaceboandMusicNoMusicarerepresentedineachbox.
Ahistogramofthedataunderthe3conditionsforeachtestisalsogiven.

Figure1:ResultsforMusicvsPlacebofortheReactionTimetest.

Figure2:ResultsforMusicvsNonMusicfortheReactionTimetest.

Figure3:Histogramforthe3differentconditionsfortheReactionTimetest.

Figure4:ResultsforMusicvsPlacebofortheGoNoGotest.

Figure5:ResultsforMusicvsNonMusicfortheGoNoGotest.

Figure6:HistogramfortheGoNoGotestforthe3differentconditions.

Theprecisionforthe3GoNoGoconditionswassimilarataround92percent.

TheprecisionchangedconsiderablybetweenconditionsforthePatternRecognitiontest:

Music89%
Placebo86%
NoMusic83%

Sowecalculatedaweightedreactiontimethatisthereactiontimetimestheprecision.The
valuegiveninthefollowingstatisticsandgraphsareweightedreactiontimes:

Figure7:ResultsforMusicvsPlaceboforthePatternRecognitiontest.

Figure8:ResultsforMusicvsNonMusicforthePatternRecognitiontest.

Figure9:HistogramforthePatternRecognitiontestforthe3differentconditions.

ComparisonwithotherEnhancementsandBehavioral
TestsResults

Snel
etal.
usedcognitivetests(Snel,Loristetal.1999)tomeasuretheeffectofcaffeineonfocus.In
particularthePatternRecognitiontestweusedfortheBrain.fmtests.Thestudyinvolved12subjects
andcomparedperformancebetweentwoconditions:placeboand250mgofcaffeine.

ThePatternRecognitiontestandotherbehavioraltestshownoimprovementduetocaffeinebut
caffeinedidaffecttheeventrelatedpotentials(ERP)inastatisticalmeaningfulway.
WeconsidertheperformanceofBrain.fmfocussessionovercaffeinegivenwecanobserve
statisticallysignificantresultwithjustfewmoresubjectsthanthereferencedstudy.

EEGResults

Figure10:EEGspectrogramfortheEEGduringbaselinevsFocussession.TheFocussessionistheReaction
Timetest.Baselineistestwithoutanymusic.

WerecordedEEGdataduringbaselineandFocussessionforthedifferenttestsandconditionsin4
subjects(3males,1female).

Figure10illustratesresultsinaPowerSpectralDensityplotforsubject4asanexample(similar
trendsarepresentintheother3subjects).TheFocussessionshowstheresultsofthemodulated
musiconthebrainEEG.Prominentspikesinalphaandbetaareclearlyvisible.Overallthereisan
increaseinbetademonstratingmorealertness.

Figure11:ZoomininthedeltaregionofFigure10.

Figure11showsazoomoftheEEGforsubject4inthedeltaregion.Thereisanincreaseindeltathat
hasbeendemonstratedtomodulateattentionduringwaking.

EEGBandPowerAnalysis

WehavealsomeasuredratioofthepowerduringtheFocusandBaselineconditionsfordifferent
bands.

Ratiothetaoverbeta

Severalstudies(IshigamiandKlein2011)(Fan,Byrneetal.2007)(Shi,Lietal.2012)haveshown
thattheratiothetaoverbetaisagoodmeasureofattentionwithadecreaseinthisratiobeing
correlatedwithfocus.

(lessisbetter)
DuringBrain.fmfocus

10.5946

DuringBaseline

13.2434

Ratiodeltaoveralpha

Othermeasuresofattentionaretheratiodeltaoveralpha(increaseiscorrelatedwithfocus):

(moreisbetter)
DuringBrain.fmfocus

148.4150

DuringBaseline

126.2951

Ratiogammaoverbeta

Alsoanincreaseofgammaoverbeta(Gruber,Mulleretal.1999)denotesfocus.

(moreisbetter)

DuringBrain.fmfocus

0.8753

DuringBaseline

0.5345

Meanoftheratioofthetaoverbetaasafunctionoftime

Wealsocalculatedthemeanoftheratioofthetaoverbetaforallthesubjectsasafunctionoftime
averagingover10seconds.
(lessisbetter)
DuringBrain.fmfocus

9.3541

DuringBaseline

12.3609

WeusedatwowayANOVAtoshowstatisticalsignificancewiththefollowingresult:

hT=1,pT=0.0237

Figure12illustratestheratioofthetaoverbetaasafunctionoftimeforsubject4.

WhileduringtheFocussessionthisratiowaslowandrelativelyconstant(showingastablefocus)
duringbaselinetherewasanincreaseofdistraction(indicatedbytheincreaseinthetaoverbeta)after
120seconds.

Figure12:Ratioofthetaoverbetacalculatedoverintervalsof10seconds(datapoints)forsubject4.

References

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Previousstudieshavesuggestedtherelationofparticularfrequencybandssuchastheta(48
Hz),alpha(814Hz),beta(1430Hz),orgamma(>30Hz)tocognitivefunctions.However,therehas
beencontroversyoverwhichbandsarespecificallyrelatedtoattention.Weusedtheattentionnetwork
testtoseparatethreeanatomicallydefinedbrainnetworksthatcarryoutthefunctionsofalerting,
orienting,andexecutivecontrolofattention.Highdensityscalpelectricalrecordingwasperformedto
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gammabandresponsesinavisualspatialattentiontaskusinga128channelEEGmontage.
Methods:Coloredrectangleswerepresentedonascreen.After500msanarrowindicatedwhether
subjectshadtoshifttheirattentiontotheleftorrighthalfofthescreentodetecttargetstimuli.During
thetask,eithertheattendedhalfofthescreenrotatedhorizontallywhiletheunattendedpartremained
motionless,orviceversa.
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isolabilityofthenetworksscoreswhenolderadultsweretestedwiththeseANTs.Tentestsessions,
eachcontainingtwoversionsoftheANT,wereadministeredto10olderadults.Participantswere
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