Intraocular pressure is sensitive to cumulative and instantaneous mental workload.
We used a repeated-measures design to assess the impact of mental-task complexity on intraocular pressure (IOP). Fourteen participants performed three continuous 11-min blocks of a mental-workload task (3-back) and an oddball version of this task. Also, heart-rate variability (HRV), cognitive-performance scores, and subjective measure of mental load (NASA-TLX) were determined. IOP was taken before each block and afterwards as well as after recovery from mental tasks. We found that IOP increased during heavy mental workloads (p < 0.01). Consistent with this finding, the autonomic control (HRV) and the cognitive performance were significantly lower (p < 0.045, and p < 0.01, respectively), and the NASA-TLX scores were higher during the 3-back task (p < 0.01). We conclude that IOP is sensitive to mental workload, and it could provide a novel neuroergonomic tool to assess mental workload. Our study highlights a potential association between IOP and the nervous system's state of activation.
Department of Optics, University of Granada, Spain; Sport and Health University Mixed Institute, University of Granada, Spain. Electronic address: jesusvv@correo.ugr.es.
Jesús
J
Vera
Department of Optics, University of Granada, Spain.
Raimundo
R
Jiménez
Department of Optics, University of Granada, Spain.
José Antonio
JA
García
Sport and Health University Mixed Institute, University of Granada, Spain; Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Granada, Spain.
David
D
Cárdenas
D000328:Adult; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
Heart-rate variability; NASA-TLX; Neuroergonomics; Ocular biomarker; Task complexity