Citation

Shaw EP, Rietschel JC, Hendershot BD, Pruziner AL, Miller MW, Hatfield BD, Gentili RJ. Biol. Psychol. 2018; 134: 39-51.

Affiliation

Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Robotics Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Electronic address: rodolphe@umd.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.01.009

PMID

29378284

Abstract

Previous work focused on assessing cognitive workload has suggested EEG spectral content and component amplitudes of the event-related potential (ERP) waveform may index mental effort and attentional reserve, respectively. Although few studies have assessed attentional reserve and mental effort during upper-extremity performance, none employed a combined approach to measure cognitive workload during locomotion. Therefore, by systematically considering ERPs, spectral content, and importantly, their combinations this study aimed to examine whether concurrent changes in spectral content and ERPs could collectively index cognitive workload during locomotion. Specifically, ERP and EEG markers were assessed as participants performed a cognitive task under two levels of difficulty (easy or hard) and two conditions (seated or walking). Changes in attentional reserve and mental effort appeared to collectively index cognitive workload under varying demands due to changes in task difficulty or performance conditions. This work can inform cognitive workload assessment in patient populations with gait deficiencies for future applications.

Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

Attentional reserve; Ecologically valid human performance; Event-related potentials; Locomotion; Mental effort and workload; Spectral power