How mental fatigue affects visual selective attention
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1
University of Groningen, Netherlands
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2
University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands
Mentally fatigued people often report having a hard time keeping their attention, being easily distracted. In this study we examined the relation between mental fatigue, as induced by time on task, and attention-related changes in neural activity in the primary visual cortex (V1), where attention modulates the activity via delayed feedback connections from higher cortical processing areas, as reflected in event related potentials (ERPs). EEG, reaction times and response accuracies were obtained from 18 healthy volunteers during two hours of performance on an adapted Eriksen flanker task. The size of targets and flankers was manipulated in order to affect the salience of relevant and irrelevant information. Differences in the ERP between high and low salience presentations for targets and flankers were used to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information processing. Independent component analyses (ICA) were applied to EEG data in order to track signals originated in V1. Behavioral results showed a significant increase in reaction times and a decrease in accuracy with rising time on task, indicating that mental fatigue was indeed induced. Three way interactions in the ERPs between stimulus salience and congruency and time on task, showed that differences between high and low salience target stimuli increased for incongruent stimuli, while they decreased for congruent stimuli indicating that with time-on-task, irrelevant information interfered more strongly with information processing. Similar effects in the behavioral results support this conclusion.
Keywords:
cognitive control,
Fatigue
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Sessions: Performance Monitoring and Cognitive Control
Citation:
Faber
LG,
Maurits
NM and
Lorist
MM
(2011). How mental fatigue affects visual selective attention.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00261
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Received:
21 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Léon G Faber, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, l.g.faber@rug.nl