Mental workload estimations in unilateral deafened children

Abstract

Despite of technological innovations, noisy environments still constitute a challenging and stressful situation for words recognition by hearing impaired subjects. The evaluation of the mental workload imposed by the noisy environments for the recognition of the words in prelingually deaf children is then of paramount importance since it could affect the speed of the learning process during scholar period.The aim of the present study was to investigate different electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectral density (PSD) components (in theta 4-8 Hz - and alpha - 8-12 Hz - frequency bands) to estimate the mental workload index in different noise conditions during a word recognition task in prelingually deaf children, a population not yet investigated in relation to the workload index during auditory tasks. A pilot study involving a small group of prelingually deaf children was then subjected to EEG recordings during an auditory task composed by a listening and a successive recognition of words with different noise conditions. Results showed that in the pre-word listening phase frontal EEG PSD in theta band and the ratio of the frontal EEG PSD in theta band and the parietal EEG PSD in alpha band (workload index; IWL) reported highest values in the most demanding noise condition. In addition, in the phase preceding the word forced-choice task the highest parietal EEG PSD in alpha band and IWL values were reported at the presumably simplest condition (noise emitted in correspondence of the subject's deaf ear). These results could suggest the prominence of EEG PSD theta component activity in the pre-word listening phase. In addition, a more challenging noise situation in the pre-choice phase would be so "over-demanding" to fail to enhance both the alpha power and the IWL in comparison to the already demanding "simple" condition.

EEG rhythms lateralization patterns in children with unilateral hearing loss are different from the patterns of normal hearing controls during speech-in-noise listening

“…Continuous 4-talker babble background noise was used as the competing signal in order to provide informational masking (masking containing semantic information strongly interfering with the linguistic processing of the target). The experimental conditions were: Quiet condition and three background noise configurations that have already been used in previous studies (Cartocci et al, 2018;G. Cartocci et al, 2015;Ching et al, 2009;Kokkinakis and Pak, 2014;Marsella et al, 2017), where the competing noise was delivered: i) frontal bilaterally, that is from two loudspeakers placed at þ45 and À45 in relation to the participant; ii) at an angle of þ90 from the frontal signal; iii) at an angle of À90 from the frontal signal.…”

“…The protocol has already been employed in previously published studies involving cochlear implant candidates (Cartocci et al, 2015) and cochlear implant users (Cartocci et al, 2018;Marsella et al, 2017). Before exposure to the experimental stimuli, participants were asked to look at a black screen for 60 s, and the EEG activity recorded during this "open-eye condition" was then used for the IAF calculation (Goljahani et al, 2012).…”

“…As regards the hearing-impaired population, alpha and theta rhythms as indices of listening effort in a word-in-noise recognition task under different signal and noise directions have already been investigated in children who are candidates for cochlear implant (CI) surgery (Cartocci et al, 2015) and in adult unilateral CI users (Cartocci et al, 2018), but also in the comparison of CI processors to identify the device and functions allowing less effortful listening (Cartocci et al, 2016a,b).…”

EEG Alpha Power Is Modulated by Attentional Changes during Cognitive Tasks and Virtual Reality Immersion

“…Different results, however, have been recently observed in the auditory domain, where an increase of alpha has been linked to increased effort and/or processing [16][17][18][19]. Hence, the role of a task on the alpha-band power, even during processing of external inputs is still strongly debated, with possible significant differences in auditory and visual domains and in different tasks.…”

A New Perspective for the Training Assessment: Machine Learning-Based Neurometric for Augmented User's Evaluation

“…In fact, one of the most prominent neurophysiological events linked to the increase of information processing, working memory, decision making process, and sustained attention (Botvinick et al, 2004; Mitchell et al, 2008) is the increase (e.g., synchronization ) of the theta activity over the prefrontal and frontal brain areas (Berka et al, 2007; Berka and Johnson, 2011; Galán and Beal, 2012; Jaušovec and Jaušovec, 2012; Borghini et al, 2013, 2016; Mackie et al, 2013; Cartocci et al, 2015). Additionally, frontal theta synchronization has also been demonstrated to be correlated with memory load (Jensen and Tesche, 2002), task difficulty (Gevins et al, 1997; Aricò et al, 2015), error processing (Luu et al, 2004), and recognition of previously viewed stimuli (Arrighi et al, 2016).…”