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Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks

One goal of advanced information and communication technology is to simplify work. However, there is growing consensus regarding the negative consequences of inappropriate workload on employee's health and the safety of persons. In order to develop a method for continuous mental workload monito...

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Autor principal: Radüntz, Thea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5727053/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29276490
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.01019
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author Radüntz, Thea
author_facet Radüntz, Thea
author_sort Radüntz, Thea
collection PubMed
description One goal of advanced information and communication technology is to simplify work. However, there is growing consensus regarding the negative consequences of inappropriate workload on employee's health and the safety of persons. In order to develop a method for continuous mental workload monitoring, we implemented a task battery consisting of cognitive tasks with diverse levels of complexity and difficulty. We conducted experiments and registered the electroencephalogram (EEG), performance data, and the NASA-TLX questionnaire from 54 people. Analysis of the EEG spectra demonstrates an increase of the frontal theta band power and a decrease of the parietal alpha band power, both under increasing task difficulty level. Based on these findings we implemented a new method for monitoring mental workload, the so-called Dual Frequency Head Maps (DFHM) that are classified by support vectors machines (SVMs) in three different workload levels. The results are in accordance with the expected difficulty levels arising from the requirements of the tasks on the executive functions. Furthermore, this article includes an empirical validation of the new method on a secondary subset with new subjects and one additional new task without any adjustment of the classifiers. Hence, the main advantage of the proposed method compared with the existing solutions is that it provides an automatic, continuous classification of the mental workload state without any need for retraining the classifier—neither for new subjects nor for new tasks. The continuous workload monitoring can help ensure good working conditions, maintain a good level of performance, and simultaneously preserve a good state of health.
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spelling pubmed-57270532017-12-22 Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks Radüntz, Thea Front Physiol Physiology One goal of advanced information and communication technology is to simplify work. However, there is growing consensus regarding the negative consequences of inappropriate workload on employee's health and the safety of persons. In order to develop a method for continuous mental workload monitoring, we implemented a task battery consisting of cognitive tasks with diverse levels of complexity and difficulty. We conducted experiments and registered the electroencephalogram (EEG), performance data, and the NASA-TLX questionnaire from 54 people. Analysis of the EEG spectra demonstrates an increase of the frontal theta band power and a decrease of the parietal alpha band power, both under increasing task difficulty level. Based on these findings we implemented a new method for monitoring mental workload, the so-called Dual Frequency Head Maps (DFHM) that are classified by support vectors machines (SVMs) in three different workload levels. The results are in accordance with the expected difficulty levels arising from the requirements of the tasks on the executive functions. Furthermore, this article includes an empirical validation of the new method on a secondary subset with new subjects and one additional new task without any adjustment of the classifiers. Hence, the main advantage of the proposed method compared with the existing solutions is that it provides an automatic, continuous classification of the mental workload state without any need for retraining the classifier—neither for new subjects nor for new tasks. The continuous workload monitoring can help ensure good working conditions, maintain a good level of performance, and simultaneously preserve a good state of health. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-12-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5727053/ /pubmed/29276490 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.01019 Text en Copyright © 2017 Radüntz. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Physiology
Radüntz, Thea
Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks
title Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks
title_full Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks
title_fullStr Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks
title_full_unstemmed Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks
title_short Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks
title_sort dual frequency head maps: a new method for indexing mental workload continuously during execution of cognitive tasks
topic Physiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5727053/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29276490
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.01019
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