Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department

Behavioral Sciences

First Advisor

Karl Bailey

Abstract

The general public is extremely interested in mental training and the use of brain imaging to study the mind. One device that combines the two and is currently on the market for consumers is a single channel EEG band produced by NeuroSky which claims to measure concentration. However, the claim that they have developed a single channel measure of concentration and meditation have not been tested. EEG power is related to cognitive memory and performance, which both contribute to concentration. In addition to EEG waves, pupil size is a reliable physiological index of processing load and concentration. The first purpose of this study is to replicate the finding of pupil diameter size and concentration. The second purpose is to see if the results of the replication correlate with the proprietary concentration reading from the NeuroSky single channel EEG as a first step towards understanding what, if anything, consumer EEG equipment measures. In this study we found that pupil diameter can measure concentration and that a single channel consumer EEG device is also sensitive to concentration.

Subject Area

Electroencephalography., Pupillometry., Attention., Pupil (Eye)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/89/

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