Effect of Mental Fatigue on Alpha Oscillation Information Integration of Working Memory
Yang Shuo1,2*, Peng Sen1,2, Wang Lei1,2, Wang Zengxin1,2, Shi Baixue1,2
1(State Key Laboratory of Reliability and Intelligence of Electrical Equipment, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China) 2(Tianjin Key Laboratory of Bioelectromagnetic Technology and Intelligent Health, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China)
Abstract：Mental fatigue refers to a kind of physical and psychological discomfort experienced by people when they carry out cognitive activities of continuous mental attention in a certain period. Cognitive activity depends on the exchange of information between multiple regions of the brain. Phase synchronization, as an important mechanism of information integration between brain regions, builds a bridge of cooperative communication between different regions of the brain. Alpha oscillation is considered to be an active mechanism of neuronal processing inhibition that plays a central role in attention allocation in working memory. In this paper,the adaptive N-back experiment was used to induce mental fatigue. The improved Sternberg paradigm was used as a working memory experiment. EEG signals during working memory before and after mental fatigue were recorded. Phase synchronization analysis and power spectrum analysis were used to analyze the EEG data of α oscillatory working memory before and after mental fatigue, and to study the effect of mental fatigue on brain information integration. Results showed that when the mental fatigue occurred, the phase synchronization of the brain region increased significantly in the whole process of working memory, and there was a significant difference in power spectrum. Among them, the phase synchronization between frontal lobe region and fronto-occipital region increased significantly in all three periods after mental fatigue. During coding period, there were 160 node pairs with significant increase in phase lock value between the frontal lobe regions. During the retention period, there were 222 between frontal lobe and 65 between frontal lobe and occipital parietal lobe. During extraction period, 196 between frontal lobe and 11 between frontal lobe and occipital parietal lobe. During the coding period, there was a significant α oscillationevent—related desynchronization (ERD) (PO8, P=0.048; Oz, P=0.036) in the occipital parietal region, and a tendency of α oscillation event—related synchronization(ERS) appeared in the frontal lobe. During the retention period, there was a significant α oscillatoryERS (Fz, P=0.022) in the frontal lobe and a trend of ERS in the occipital parietal region. During the extraction period, α oscillatory ERS, in frontal region (Fz, P=0.033) and α oscillatory ERD in occipital region (Oz, P=0.045). These studies have shown that the mental fatigue could reduce the ability of information integration in brain regions and reduce the information communication in the brain. The phase synchronization analysis of α oscillation is helpful to explain the mechanism of mental fatigue on information integration in brain regions.
杨硕, 彭森, 王磊, 王增鑫, 时佰雪. 精神疲劳对工作记忆α振荡信息整合的影响[J]. 中国生物医学工程学报, 2021, 40(4): 461-468.
Yang Shuo, Peng Sen, Wang Lei, Wang Zengxin, Shi Baixue. Effect of Mental Fatigue on Alpha Oscillation Information Integration of Working Memory. Chinese Journal of Biomedical Engineering, 2021, 40(4): 461-468.
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