CSB #8 Experiment: Musical Stimuli Affecting Your Heart Rate

Little Scientists: Savi Joshi, Tiara Bhatacharya, and Delaney Martin

Music is an important influence in many teenagers’ social, academic, and physical lives. For some, it encourages focus on tasks such as homework or extracurricular, such as athletics; for others, it is a reliable source of comfort and a break from the stress caused by school. However, some songs prove to be better at helping students focus and promoting intellectual capabilities. For instance, it is a common perception that classical music helps infants make good bases for learning in the future. Although many believe this, we were curious to see if music actually affected the brain and heart.

In this experiment, Delaney, Tiara, and Savi tested how would the heart react to the different styles and tempos of music. We used 5 songs: New World Symphony (Dvorak), Always (Panic! At The Disco), Levels ID Original Mix (Avicii), Louder: Doctor P & Flux Pavilion Remix (DJ Fresh), Let's Go ft. Yelawolf, Busta Rhymes, Twista, and Lil Jon (Travis Barker). We were looking for a change of heart rate or a spike in the heart beats. If a person were to listen to high tempo music such as Let's Go or Louder, their heart rate would be higher than while listening to New World Symphony or Always.

We used logger pro to record the heart rate and the heart beat. We tested our experiment on Delaney, Savi, and Tiara.

Tiara in her natural state while listening to classical music.

Savi intensely listening to music while Delaney uses the assistance of Logger Pro and the EKG to record data.

We found our that our initial hypothesis was correct, but with exceptions. The music did not affect Savi at all. We think this is caused by her familiarity with these songs, meaning she would be used to the tempo of the music. Whereas Tiara only identified with the classical music, calming her down significantly. Delaney was affected by the music the "best" and responded to almost every song.

The top graph represents all three of the runs overlapping. The next represents Savi's response to the music. As noticed, all though her heart rate is high, due to some error, it maintains to stay the same along with her heart beat. The blue represents the 2nd run with Tiara as the test subject. Whereas, Tiara also with a more stable heart rate with slight fluctuation became excited when New World Symphony came on. When the music started, her heart beat would spike but eventually calm. As seen, during the 30 second intervals of silence her heartbeat was stable. Last, the green represents Delaney. Her heart rate fluctuated all over during the course of the experiment, but her heartbeat was only affected when she was introduced to Let's Go in the beginning and Louder towards the end.

To conclude, the effect music has on a subject depends on the subject's preferences and their familiarity with the music. Throughout all three runs, one fact remains the same: classical music caused stability in heart rate and a calm heartbeat.

CSB #7: Video Games Now Being Used as a Cure

Nintendo Wii

one example of a modern spirometer

Recently, scientists have started to study whether kids with cystic fibrosis can use video games as motivation for them to stick to their treatments. Cystic fibrosis is a disease that causes mucus to build up in the lungs and airways of the body, which makes it extremely hard for the infected person to breathe. One treatment for kids with cystic fibrosis is "huffing", which is heavy breathing that helps get rid of the buildup. A problem with this treatment, however, is that many children would rather do something more fun instead, such as video games. Because of this, scientists have tried to link video games with their treatment, and created a study to see if active video games, such as Wii Fit and Wii Sports, will help with their treatment. The way scientists set up the experiment is by comparing the amount of breathing the children did when playing video games, versus not playing them. For 2-4 weeks, kids would be around video game equipment, but not be able to play the video games, and scientists would record how much they followed through with their breathing therapy and how effective it was. Then, for the same amount of time, kids would be allowed to play video games and the scientists would record and compare the results to the non-video game time period. They used spirometers to record how much air their lungs could contain and compared the volumes before the study, during the non-video game time period, and the time period when the children could play video games. After scientists received the results from the study, they concluded that participating in video games does in fact help children stick to their treatments. However, scientists did not know if it was merely the presence of the video games that made patients stick to their goal more or if it was in fact the activity from the video games.
If scientists can figure out a way to get children to utilize video games, and possibly other technology, for treatments, many diseases will become much less of a nuisance. It could even help many more people survive because they will be more focused and motivated to stick to their treatments. In addition, scientists may be able to come up with new and more effective treatments for diseases that were thought to be incurable. This will make many diseases less of an issue so that doctors can focus on more important issues, and it will allow patients to be not as inconvenienced. This breakthrough is important to medical science as it will help many children suffering, not just those with cystic fibrosis.
Article Citation: 
Greenwood, Veronique. "Can Video Games Help Sick Kids Stick to Their 
     Treatments?" Discover Magazine 2 May 2011: n. pag. Discover Magazine. Web.
     7 May 2011. <http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/05/02/
     can-video-games-help-sick-kids-stick-to-their-treatments/>.

Image Citations:
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/06/easportsactive.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Spiro_solo.jpg

CSB #6: Earthquake In Japan Causes Nuclear Meltdowns

Recently, on March 11th, 2011, a massive earthquake hit Japan, registering at a magnitude of 8.9 on the Richter Scale (although officials later re-measured the quake, the new measurement being 9.0), causing an immense tsunami. In addition to causing a colossal number of deaths, a nuclear power plant at Fukushima exploded, and the emergency that it caused was rated a five on a seven-point scale as of March 24. The earthquake caused an interruption in the power supply for the water cooling system, which ran cold water over the fuel rods to cool them off. Due to the lack of a cooling system, the fueling rods overheated and the outer metal coating melted off. This caused chemicals to be released, and when they mixed with the water vapor in the surrounding air, hydrogen was created and it caused an explosion in the reactor buildings. Japanese officials then doused the reactors with seawater as an emergency cool-down. Although Japan is in a sticky situation, they are handling the emergency well, considering the conditions.
Although this event seems like a complete tragedy, it will help other countries rethink their strategies concerning nuclear power plants. It will help others figure out how to efficiently deal with problems concerning nuclear meltdowns and explosions. This is extremely important because if a meltdown does occur, it is vital to respond quickly and appropriately because letting nuclear radiation out of the reactors would affect the entire world. Radiation poisoning is extremely hazardous, so any information learned about how to deal with emergencies due to nuclear meltdowns is important. 
Article Citation: Dacey, James. "Japan quake triggers nuclear rethink." 
Environmental Research Web. IOP, 24 Mar. 2011. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. 
<http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/45524>

CSB #5: Depressed Mothers’ Responses to Crying Infants Are Muted

Studies done by Jennifer C. Albow, a professor of psychology, show that the responses in certain parts of depressed mothers’ brains are weaker than those of non-depressed mothers’. Albow not only studied the differences between the non-depressed and depressed mothers’ responses, but also looked at how these differences affect a child’s development.

Professor Albow used non-invasive fMRI to study these differences by using a magnetic field and radio frequency pulses to examine blood flow changes in the brain. The fMRI produced very thorough images showing the sites where reaction was highest, which supplies scientists with information about brain activity and allows them to identify any diseases.

All the mothers studied were first-time mothers with babies 18 months old, with varying levels and types of depression. Both clinically and chronically depressed mothers were studied, and their symptoms of depression also varied.

Heidemarie K. Laurent, the assistant professor at the University of Wyoming says, “it looks as though depressed mothers are not responding in a more negative way than non-depressed mothers, which has been one hypothesis.” Instead of a negative response, the depressed mothers just lack a positive response. In addition, the study showed that depressed mothers didn’t show a unique response, nor did they have a different responsive site; they just lacked response in areas where non-depressed mothers had response.

This is a significant discovery because it can show doctors and therapists reasons why a child may be depressed as well. For example, if children of depressed mothers are also depressed or have situational-related diseases that affect their ability to socialize normally with other people, this may lead doctors to figure out if the fact that they have a depressed mother, and were more neglected as a child, was the cause of their disease. This can help doctors give therapy and try to help the person overcome their disease, if possible. Also, it shows that depression affects everyone around the depressed individual, and this is important because it shows that depression needs to be dealt with, if not cured. Now that we have this information, will we be able to help depressed children all over the world?

Article Resource: University of Oregon. "Crying baby draws blunted response in depressed mom's brain."ScienceDaily 22 February 2011. 8 March 2011 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110222140556.htm>.

CSB #4: The Burn Journals

The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon

Definitions:
skin grafting: the transplantation of skin; a skin graft is the skin that is replaced or reattached to the patient
narcotics: according to the medical definition, narcotics are a branch of drugs that induce sleepiness, which helps to ease pain

Summary: The Burn Journals is a memoir about Brent Runyon, a teenager growing up in the 1990's. One afternoon, he is sent to the hospital because he tries to commit suicide by burning his entire body, and he enters extensive treatment for the 3rd degree burns that cover 85% of his body. Because of the burns covering his body, Runyon has to have most of his skin replaced through skin grafting; parts of his skin are sent to a lab where they are regrown, and his skin is replaced. Brent also has to stay in the hospital for almost a year to recover because his burns are so bad. Because Brent is in intense pain because of the burns, he is given narcotics to ease the pain. In addition, Brent has to go through therapy because he had depression that was so intense that he tried to kill himself.

Discussion: The main scientific elements in this book are skin grafting and therapy. Skin grafting is a very important tool for scientists and patients recovering from burns, illnesses or diseases in which most of their skin is destroyed. It allows skin to be replaced because it is able to regrow itself from undamaged cells. Usually, unharmed cells are put into a sterile environment with resources and all nutrients the cells need to reproduce, and, through mitosis, the skin sample eventually regrows. Then, scientists graft the skin back onto the patient. This is extremely important because it allows for damaged skin to be repaired and for patients suffering to live normally. As for therapy, though some scientists view it as more philosophical, it is still definitely a science. Brent undergoes therapy, the attempted reversal of certain negative or harmful psychological behaviors, for about a year and is eventually "cured," becoming happier and more normal.

Questions: What is the point at which the cells are not able to be duplicated?
Do the cells have to be living or does the DNA just have to be accessible?
How exactly do narcotics work and which areas of the brain specifically do they affect and in what ways?

Resources:
Book: Runyon, Brent. The Burn Journals. New York: Random House, 2004. Print.
Image: http://www.cityofpuyallup.org/files/library/15b2426677a2590e.jpg