Why the study?
Does prolonged intensive mental loading alter EEG spectral power in human subjects?
Does prolonged intensive mental loading alter EEG spectral power in human subjects?
Prolonged mental work induces simultaneous increases in slow and fast EEG activities, reflecting both brain state deterioration and compensatory activation.
Hypothesis-generating for mental fatigue biomarkers; leaves open clinical utility and validation in larger cohorts.
The goal of the present study was to investigate the EEG spectral power changes caused by prolonged (6 hours) intensive mental loading consisted of calculation and choice-reaction tasks. The EEGs were analysed both during the tasks performance and in rest periods at the beginning of the work (after subjects had already mastered the tasks) and at the end. The significant increase both of slow (delta, theta) and fast (beta) activities was shown at the end of the work. The observed EEG spectral power changes with time on task were similar during the different tasks performance as well as in the rest conditions indicating the general character of the observed phenomena. These results are interpreted as reflecting the deterioration of general brain state activity caused by prolonged mental work and the simultaneous additional brain activation to provide sufficient vigilance level and successful tasks performance (the subjects being highly motivated).
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Kiroy et al. (1996) studied this question.
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