Pattern analysis of Brain waves by time During Science Problem Solving by
Gifted and Normal Students with FFT and HMA analysis
Kyung-Hwa Kim1, Kyu-Han Kim2
Purpose of study
Human activity results from the activity of billions of neurons, objective studies into human intellect and psychology, and brain physiology are needed to understand gifted science students (Lee, 2003). Such objective studies of gifted science students would provide objective data on the optimal way to teach this population, and the specific associated brain activity. Current brain imaging technologies (e.g., CT, PET, MRI, fMRI, and EEG) enable us to directly investigate the functioning of the living brain, in particular the functions performed by specific areas of the brain. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a classical method of recording brain rhythms and is useful for studying various functions of the brain (Kolb & Whishaw, 1996). However, although there have been many studies into brain function, studies involving both brain function and education of the subjects have been lacking. The present study measured the brain waves of normal and gifted students using 19-channel EEG recording, and compared the brain activity patterns between groups in an attempt to determine the best method for identifying and teaching gifted students. This was based on the hypothesis that although gifted science students are not a homogeneous group, they have common characteristic that distinguish them from normal students.
The subject under investigation
The purpose of this study was to answer the following questions: (1) Do the EEGs of gifted science students and normal students differ in the rest condition? (2) Do the EEGs of gifted science students and normal students differ when they are solving science problems? (3)What is the difference of values and time to reach for maximum and minimum activity between the gifted and normal students group? And (4) is it possible to distinguish gifted students from normal students on the basis of EEGs?
Methods and procedures
This Korean study compared the 19-channel EEG records of gifted students (n=20) educated in the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education for Science Gifted Education in 2003 and 2004 against normal 7th-grade students (n=19). A standard EEG measurement system was used in this study (QEEG-32; LXE1108-RS232; Laxtha, 2000) to measure α, β, γ, and θ brain activity. d waves that are mainly evident during sleeping were excluded from the analysis. The portable system hardware includes a data acquisition system, an analog-to-digital board, and an amplifier; the software consists of an EEG analysis, EEG mapping, and analysis programs.
Results and discussion
First result is that the general activity of the brain in the groups as analyzed using the FFT showed significant differences in β and θ waves in the rest state, and significant differences in α and γ waves during problem solving (p<0.05). Another significant difference was found in the result of left hemisphere comparison(ANOVA) between gifted and normal group.
We consider results of HMA(History Mode Analysis), usually the variation of each waves for gifted students group (α>θ>β>γ in the stable state, θ>β>γ>α in the process of problem solving) is more clear, the maximum values of beta and theta waves are also higher than normal students group. The results that theta waves during the problem solving process showed tendency of the biggest changes could be explained that the role of theta wave has big part for the creative solving of problem. Also gifted students group showed the shorter timing values to reach to maximum and minimum values than normal students. This represents that gifted students have efficiency for the brain function. In other words, “their brains rest when they should have rest, and work when they should work.” Moreover, the differences in the patterns of EEG activity could be used to clearly characterize gifted group.
Applications of the research results
The findings from this study suggest that the EEG can be used to identify gifted science students, since this group tends to show a high correlation between the activities in specific brain regions: prefrontal in the steady state and temporal when solving problems. The difference between the gifted and normal groups was lower for 11th-grade students than for 7th-grade students, perhaps reflecting greater brain specialization in the former group. The brain waves in the prefrontal and frontal lobes are most active during the solving of science problems in the gifted group. This indicates that determining the correlations between EEGs in different areas provides more information on brain function than does simply measuring the level of activation in different areas, and that gifted science students and normal students can potentially be differentiated on the basis of EEG response patterns and characteristics.
Key words : EEG (brain waves), gifted science students, normal science students, science problem solving, FFT analysis, HMA analysis
Corresponding author: ddarong81@hanmail.net
Tel.: +82-2-2691-0869, Fax: +82-2-2692-7853
1Yang Gang middle school, Shinwol Dong 499-2, Yang-Chun Gu, Seoul, Korea
2Dept. of Science Education, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea