Electroencephalographic changes during selective attention

Authors

  • Nisha Ghimire Assistant Professor, Department of Basic and Clinical Physiology, B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan
  • Bishnu Hari Paudel Professor, Department of Basic and Clinical Physiology, B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan
  • Rita Khadka Associate Professor, Department of Basic and Clinical Physiology, B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan
  • Parash Nath Singh Professor, Past: B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. Current: Professor, All India Institute of medical Sciences, Patna, Bihar
  • Asim Das Past: B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. Current: Professor, E.S.I Medical College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v6i2.11122

Keywords:

Selective attention, Theta, Frontal and central regions, Alpha 2 parietal region

Abstract

Background: Though many studies are conducted during attention process, it is still not clear how brain deals with attention. So we conducted a study to find out the electroencephalographic changes during selective attention.

Methods: Thirty healthy right handed male students aged 23.1±2.8 yrs were asked to read congruent (red printed in red ink) and incongruent (red printed in blue ink) words printed in cards. EEG was recorded for ninety seconds during baseline (eye open) and reading of both cards. EEG epoch was analyzed by fast fourier transformation. Friedman test was used to compare EEG power spectra among baseline, congruent and incongruent reading followed by Wilcoxon’s Sign Rank Test.  Data were expressed as median with inter-quartile range.

Results: Compared to congruent test during incongruent test there was selective increment of theta power at Fz [36.04 (28.30-46.19) vs. 47.89 (31.65-48.1)], Cz[36.13 (27.20-46.41) vs. 45.66 (37.15-49.4)] and C4 [25.11 (19.14-30.06) vs.  30.16 (21.43-33.8)] sites but it decreased at F7 [17.88 (14.49-20.93) vs. 11.31(8.96-15.975)] and F8 [19.23 (13.61-25.79) vs. 13.95 (10.40-16.67) sites. Also during incongruent card reading, alpha1 power significantly decreased in F8 [3.39(2.63-4.63) to 2.75 (1.93-4.7)] and alpha 2 power significantly decreased in P3 6.84 [(4.88-10.46) to 5.74 (4.78-19.95)] sites.

Conclusion: During selective attention, theta gets synchronized at fronto-central regions and alpha2 desynchronized at parietal regions.  The theta and alpha1 at inferior frontal regions were also desynchronized in selective attention.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v6i2.11122

Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.6(2) 2015 52-57


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Published

2014-09-21

How to Cite

Ghimire, N., Paudel, B. H., Khadka, R., Singh, P. N., & Das, A. (2014). Electroencephalographic changes during selective attention. Asian Journal of Medical Sciences, 6(2), 51–56. https://doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v6i2.11122

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2015)

Section

Original Articles

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