title: A novel approach to the physiological measurement of mental workload.
abstract: While performing a visuo-motor task under incrementally-varied levels of difficulty, individuals were probed with a variety of novel, task-irrelevant, auditory stimuli. To determine the effect of task load on cerebral-cortical processing of these stimuli, event-related potentials were recorded while participants performed the task. We found that N1, P2, P3 and late positive potential (LPP) component amplitudes were inversely related to task-difficulty. This suggests that a variant of the oddball paradigm - in which the stimulus stream comprises novel sounds - is capable of providing a reliable index of mental workload.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Jeremy C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rietschel
authors.forename: Craig G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Bradley D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Hatfield
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult