title: Effects of mental workload and fatigue on the P300, alpha and theta band power during operation of an ERP (P300) brain-computer interface.
abstract: The study aimed at revealing electrophysiological indicators of mental workload and fatigue during prolonged usage of a P300 brain-computer interface (BCI). Mental workload was experimentally manipulated with dichotic listening tasks. Medium and high workload conditions alternated. Behavioral measures confirmed that the manipulation of mental workload was successful. Reduced P300 amplitude was found for the high workload condition. Along with lower performance and an increase in the subjective level of fatigue, an increase of power in the alpha band was found for the last as compared to the first run of both conditions. The study confirms that a combination of signals derived from the time and frequency domain of the electroencephalogram is promising for the online detection of workload and fatigue. It also demonstrates that satisfactory accuracies can be achieved by healthy participants with the P300 speller, despite constant distraction and when pursuing the task for a long time.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany. Electronic address: ivo.kaethner@uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Käthner
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Institute for Knowledge Discovery, Graz University of Technology, Austria.
authors.forename: Selina C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Wriessnegger
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Institute for Knowledge Discovery, Graz University of Technology, Austria.
authors.forename: Gernot R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Müller-Putz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kübler
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Halder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000513:Alpha Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D062207:Brain-Computer Interfaces; D004569:Electroencephalography; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D005221:Fatigue; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D005222:Mental Fatigue / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013826:Theta Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D016526:Workload; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alpha; Brain–computer interface; EEG; Fatigue; Mental workload; P300