ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Signal Process.
Sec. Biomedical Signal Processing
EEG-Based Cognitive Load Estimation During the Use of a Virtual Wheelchair Simulator
Débora Pereira Salgado 1
Felipe Roque Martins 2
Angela Abreu Rosa De Sá 3
Ronan Flynnn 1
Niall Murray 1
Eduardo Lázaro Martins Naves 2
1. Technological University of the Shannon, Limerick, Ireland
2. Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, Uberlândia, Brazil
3. Federal University of Uberlandia, Uberlândia, Brazil
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Abstract
Driving a wheelchair is difficult and complex that requires motor, visual and cognitive skills. Developing technologies to assist people without using assessments that help to understand and bring users closer to developers, leads to giving up and discouraging the use of these tools. Many of these assessments are made using implicit metrics, such as interviews or questionnaires; and explicit metrics are often related to user performance. In contrast, implicit measures infer mental content based on tasks, that can be evaluated continuously while the task is being performed. Thus, this study proposes the use of implicit metrics (the blink indexes derived from an EEG signal) to infer the cognitive load during the use of a virtual reality training tool, the wheelchair simulator. A total of 25 participants (14 females and 11 males) aged 26.50 ± 5.7 years were analyzed. They were required to complete the route on the virtual simulator. After the tests were completed, the participants answered the NASA-TLX, and the usability (SUS) and presence (IPQ). Our results showed that cognitive load that requires a mental-visual demand is related to the decrease in the frequency, duration and velocity of the blink. In addition, the results of the correlation analyses between the NASA-TLX scores (subjective cognitive load assessment) and the blink parameters were moderate and weak. The main finding is that evaluating only the blinks is not enough to infer the cognitive load, however it is a metric that applied in conjunction with questionnaires can show more relevant information than just the application of questionnaires.
Summary
Keywords
Assistive Technology, Blinks, Cognitive Load, EEG, NASA-TLX, presence, usability, virtual reality
Received
24 August 2025
Accepted
17 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Pereira Salgado, Roque Martins, Abreu Rosa De Sá, Flynnn, Murray and Lázaro Martins Naves. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Angela Abreu Rosa De Sá
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.