Re: alpha blocking in children

[Guest guest]

Theresa,

The 5-6 Hz does sound a bit low for kids that age, but for this presentation I would say that demonstrating that it happens--and perhaps that it happens in slightly different frequencies for different people--would be right on target. Try moving to P4/A2, or O1/A1, which are usually the best sites for seeing alpha.

The 29 Hz spike does sound strange. What amp are you using? 29 sounds suspiciously close to half of 60. If you did have a strong spike at 60 Hz of electromagnetic interference, you could get a first sub-harmonic spike at around 30. Did you use the same hookup, just unplugging one child and plugging in the next then back to the first? Try changing the connection, changing the electrodes, etc. and see if it persists.

Pete

I am trying to prepare an interesting EEG demo for my son's 5th grade class (they are currently studying the brain). I figured the most prominent change to demo would be the alpha blocking. I did have a

question though because on the two children I " practiced " my demo on (my 9 yo daughter and a 10 yo boy) , both showed the alpha blocking pattern around 5-6 Hz on the spectrograph. I know children have lower alpha, but this seems really low. Is this alpha, or something else? My son ( also 10 yo) has adult-like alpha blocking at 10-11 Hz.Also one other question ... neither of my test subjects had much activity at all above 20 Hz. I assume this is normal. However, the boy had a prominent spike at 29 Hz ... I never saw this before. The spike was high at Pz, and smaller at Fz, but still present. I moved the lead back to Pz and it got strong again. The spike did not show up on my daughter, who was sitting in the same location when I tested her. Any idea of what might cause a spike at 29, but only on one individual?

.. -- Van Deusen

pvdtlc@...http://www.brain-trainer.com305/433-3160The Learning Curve, Inc.