Classification of different cognitive load using Electroencephalogram(EEG): Preliminary study

Abstract

Excessive cognitive load is a one of the major cause of human error that can lead to catastrophic disasters, i.e. air traffic accidents. Therefore, maintaining proper amount of cognitive workload is important to prevent unwanted errors caused by mental burden. This study aims 1) to compare the electrophysiological differences of the brain reacting on different amount of workload, and 2) to classify different workload. Ten healthy subjects were recruited for the study. Thirty-two channels was used to record electroencephalogram (EEG) while the participants were engaging to 1- and 3-back memory task. The results showed a significant difference of P300 latency in Pz electrode, where the source activation of right insular was decreased in right insular as the cognitive workload increased. Furthermore, the workload differences was able to distinguished with 5% error using only sensor-space features. ? 2018 IEEE.