| Summary: | 碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 生命科學系碩士班 === 106 === Essential oils (EO) are chemical from the plant that resistant to pests or antivirus which extract the root, stem, leaf or flower. Previous studies indicate lavender essential oil (Lavandula officinalis) is the most commonly an essential oil, it can relieve nerves, calm emotions, to promote sleep and other effects. Rosemary essential oil (Rosemarinus officinalis) can enhance memory and make the mind clear. Many studies explain differently on the physiological and psychological condition, include nerve system, heart rate, and emotion that used to smell essential oil of aromatherapy. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the effect of essential oil on the cognitive function of the human brain by the non-invasive method. Three experiments were in this study: First experiment using Electroencephalography (EEG), Eye-tracking and Smart wrist; Second experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); Third experiment using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) to detect gene expression. The first experiment the subjects smelt water or lavender or rosemary essential oil randomly who did 9 questions at the selective attention task and recorded their brainwave, eye movement, and heart rate. The results of behavioral experiments showed no significant difference. Neuron-Spectrum.NET surface analyzed EEG including β low frequency (βLF) and β high frequency (βHF) or brain ratio: βLF /α, βHF/α, βLF /(α+βLF +βHF) and βHF /(α+βLF +βHF). The results of EEG showed the control and rosemary essential oil group prayed more attention than lavender essential oil which activated in the right frontal lobe, temporal lobe and parietal lobe. In addition, Standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA), the regions of interest (ROI) about olfactory systems and emotion included Inferior Frontal Gyrus, Middle Frontal Gyrus, Orbitofrontal Cortex, Rectal Gyrus, Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex. The results of sLORETA showed that the subjects felt relaxed in the essential oil group, but they did not affect that they focus the task. The second experiment was using fMRI. The subjects did 40 questions at selective attention task. The results of behavioral experiments showed the score and time were no significant differences in three group. We found the lavender and rosemary essential oil group activated on Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex, they implied the essential oil will be activated brain area by olfactory stimulating. The third experiment was exploring the gene expression relative cognitive or memory function by QPCR. We sampled the oral mucosa cell from the subjects after first experiment finishing. The gene expression included nuclear receptor subfamily 3 group C member 1 (NR3C1) which as an indicator of stress and relaxation. The results showed that despite differences in pairwise comparables three groups have different, but still proved its significance. The study helps to know whether essential oil can achieve relation and attention strangely.
Keywords: essential oil, lavender, rosemary, EEG, eye-tracking, fMRI, cognitive function
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