EEG-based classification of visual and auditory monitoring tasks

Abstract

Using EEG signals for mental workload detection has received particular attention in passive BCI research aimed at increasing safety and performance in high-risk and safetycritical occupations, like pilots and air traffic controllers. Along with detecting the level of mental workload, it has been suggested that being able to automatically detect the type of mental workload (e.g., auditory, visual, motor, cognitive) would also be useful. In this work, a novel experimental protocol was developed in which subjects performed a task involving one of two different types of mental workload (specifically, auditory and visual), each under two different levels of task demand (easy and difficult). The tasks were designed to be nearly identical in terms of visual and auditory stimuli, and differed only in the type of stimuli the subject was monitoring/attending to. EEG power spectral features were extracted and used to train linear and non-linear classifiers. Preliminary results on six subjects suggested that the auditory and visual tasks could be distinguished from one another, and individually from a baseline condition (which also contained nearly identical stimuli that the subject did not need to attend to at all), with accuracy significantly exceeding chance. This was true when classification was done within a workload level, and when data from the two workload levels were combined. Preliminary results also showed that tasks with easy and difficult trials could be distinguished from one another, each within a sensory domain (auditory and visual) as well as with both domains combined. Though further investigation is required, these preliminary results are promising, and suggest the feasibility of a passive BCI for detecting both type and level of mental workload.

EEG-based detection of modality-specific visual and auditory sensory processing

“…The emphasis of mental workload studies to date has been almost exclusively on detecting and predicting the level of mental workload. However, it has been suggested that determining the 'type' of mental workload would also be useful [29,30]. Multiple resource theory (MRT; [31][32][33][34]) provides a framework to start understanding the types of mental workload it might be useful to detect in passive BCI systems.…”

Simultaneous Classification of Both Mental Workload and Stress Level Suitable for an Online Passive Brain–Computer Interface

“…Mental workload detection also has potential value in other domains, including gaming [4], adaptive training/learning [5][6][7], and user Sensors 2022, 22, 535 2 of 17 interface design applications [8], to enhance and personalize user experience. Because of its potential usefulness in a range of applications, mental workload detection via EEG is a very active and expanding field, with a large number of published studies (e.g., [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]).…”