Relationship of Event-Related Potentials to the Vigilance Decrement

Frontiers in Psychology

Megan Wiedbusch¹  Megan Morris²  Rachel Boyd³  Glenn Gunzelmann⁴  Mike Krusmark⁵  Matt Walsh⁶  Ashley Haubert⁷ 

[1] Technologies, Fairborn, OH, United States;;Ball Aerospace &Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States;L3 Technologies, New York, NY, United States;Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, TN, United States;RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, United States;Sensor Systems Division, Human Factors Group, University Research Institute, Dayton, OH, United States;

关键词: ERP (event related potentials);    vigilance decrement;    N1 amplitudes;    P3b;    resource-control theory;    resource-depletion;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00237

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Cognitive fatigue emerges in wide-ranging tasks and domains, but traditional vigilance tasks provide a well-studied context in which to explore the mechanisms underlying it. Though a variety of experimental methodologies have been used to investigate cognitive fatigue in vigilance, relatively little research has utilized electroencephalography (EEG), specifically event-related potentials (ERPs), to explore the nature of cognitive fatigue, also known as the vigilance decrement. Moreover, much of the research that has been done on vigilance and ERPs uses non-traditional vigilance paradigms, limiting generalizability to the established body of behavioral results and corresponding theories. In this study, we address concerns with prior research by (1) investigating the vigilance decrement using a well-established visual vigilance task, (2) utilizing a task designed to attenuate possible confounding ERP components present within a vigilance paradigm, and (3) informing our interpretations with recent findings from ERP research. We averaged data across electrodes located over the frontal, central, and parietal scalp. Then, we generated waveforms locked to the onset of critical low-frequency or non-critical high-frequency events during a 40 min task that was segregated into time blocks for data analysis. There were three primary findings from the analyses of these data. First, mean amplitude of N1 was greater during later blocks for both low-frequency and high-frequency events, a contradictory finding compared to past visual vigilance studies that is further discussed with respect to current interpretations of the N1 in visual attention tasks. Second, P3b mean amplitude following low-frequency events was reduced during later blocks, with a later onset latency. Third and finally, the decrease in P3b amplitude correlated with individual differences in the magnitude of the vigilance decrement, assessed using d′. The results provide evidence for degradations of cognitive processing efficiency brought on by extended time on task, leading to delayed processing and decreased discriminability of critical stimuli from non-critical stimuli. These conclusions are discussed in the context of the vigilance decrement and corresponding theoretical accounts.

【 授权许可】

Unknown