title: Inter-hemispheric electroencephalography coherence analysis: assessing brain activity during monotonous driving.
abstract: The current study investigated the effect of monotonous driving on inter-hemispheric electroencephalography (EEG) coherence. Twenty-four non-professional drivers were recruited to perform a fatigue instigating monotonous driving task while 30 channels of EEG were simultaneously recorded. The EEG recordings were then divided into 5 equal sections over the entire driving period for analysis. Inter-hemispheric coherence was computed from 5 homologous EEG electrode pairs (FP1-FP2, C3-C4, T7-T8, P7-P8, and O1-O2) for delta, theta, alpha and beta frequency bands. Results showed that frontal and occipital inter-hemispheric coherence values were significantly higher than central, parietal, and temporal sites for all four frequency bands (p<0.0001). In the alpha frequency band, significant difference was found between earlier and later driving sections (p=0.02). The coherence values in all EEG frequency bands were slightly increased at the end of the driving session, except for FP1-FP2 electrode pair, which showed no significant change in coherence in the beta frequency band at the end of the driving session.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Molecular Biosciences, University of Technology, Sydney, Building 4, level 6, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia. Budi.T.Jap@uts.edu.au
authors.forename: Budi Thomas
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Jap
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lal
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001334:Automobile Driving; D003344:Cortical Synchronization; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D005222:Mental Fatigue; D008875:Middle Aged