Mental Fatigue Estimation Using EEG in a Vigilance Task and Resting States.

Abstract

Mental fatigue induced by long time mental work can cause deterioration in task performance and increase the risk of accidents. Recently, electroencephalogram (EEG)-based monitoring of mental fatigue has received increasing attention in the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCI). This study aims to employ EEG signals to measure the mental fatigue level by estimating reaction time (RT) in a psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). In a 36-hour sleep deprivation experiment, EEG data from 18 subjects were recorded every four hours in nine blocks, each consisting of three tasks: a 6-minute PVT task and two 3-minute resting states (eyes closed and eyes open). The mean RT in the PVT task showed a generally increasing trend during the 36-hour awake period, reflecting the increase of fatigue over time. For each task, multiple EEG features were extracted and selected to better estimate RT using a multiple linear regression (MLR) method. The correlation between predicted RT and actual RT was evaluated using a leave-one-subject-out (LOSO) validation strategy. After parameter optimization, EEG data from the PVT task obtained a mean correlation coefficient of $0.81 \pm 0.16$ across all subjects. Resting-state EEG data showed lower correlations (eyes-closed: $0.65 \pm 0.20$, eyes-open: $0.50 \pm 0.30)$ partially due to the involvement of shorter data lengths. These results demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of the EEG-based fatigue monitoring method, which could be potential for applications in operational environments.

• Authors: Sen Tian, Yijun Wang, Guoya Dong, Weihua Pei, Hongda Chen
• Journal: Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference (Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc) Vol. 2018 Pg. 1980-1983 (Jul 2018) ISSN: 2694-0604 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 30440787 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Topics

• Electroencephalography
• Humans
• Mental Fatigue
• Psychomotor Performance
• Reaction Time
• Wakefulness