EEG microstate changes according to mental fatigue induced by aircraft piloting simulation: An exploratory study

Abstract

Background: A continuous flight task load can induce fatigue and lead to changes in electroencephalography (EEG). EEG microstates can reflect the activities of large-scale neural networks during mental fatigue. This exploratory experiment explored the effects of mental fatigue induced by continuous simulated flight multitasking on EEG microstate indices.

Methods: Twenty-four participants performed continuous 2-hour aircraft piloting simulation while EEG were recorded. The Stanford sleepiness scale (SSS) and critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) were measured before and after the task. Microstate analysis was applied to EEG. Four microstate classes (A-D) were identified during the pre-task, post-task, beginning, and end phases. The effects of mental fatigue were analyzed.

Results: Compared with the pre-task, the post-task had a higher global explained variance (GEV) and time parameters of class C but lower occurrence and coverage of class D. The end had a higher GEV but lower duration and coverage of class D than at the beginning. After 2 h of multitasking, the transition probability between A and D, and between B and D decreased but between A and C increased. Subjective fatigue scores were negatively correlated with occurrence and coverage of class D. Task performance was negatively correlated with duration and coverage of class C but positively correlated with duration and occurrence of class B.

Conclusion: Time parameters and transition probability of EEG microstates can detect mental fatigue induced by continuous aircraft piloting simulation. The global brain network activation of mental fatigue can be detected by EEG microstates that can evaluate flight fatigue.

Keywords: Attention; Flight fatigue; Global field potential; Multitasking; Topographical analysis.