Mental Fatigue Assessment using recording Brain Signals: Electroencephalography

Mental fatigue is a condition triggered by prolonged cognitive activity. Mental fatigue causes brain over-activity. This is a condition where the brain cells become exhausted, hampering person productivity, and overall cognitive function. The aim of this study was to assess students’ mental fatigue using brain indices.

The present descriptive - analytic study has been conducted on 20 students of the Faculty of Health mean age (SD) of 24.40 (3.73) years old in Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences (2019). To assess the performance of the participants, they were asked to study a text with spelling errors and correct those errors. This activity was performed in five stages, each lasting 15 min and EEG was recorded at all stages, and at each stage, the visual analog scale was completed by participants. Data analysis was done by SPSS 24.

The results showed that the activity of alpha, beta, and theta signals in the first 15 minutes was 0.89±0.30, 0.70±0.33, and 1.19±0.36, and the last 15 minutes, 0.63±0.34, 0.55±0.26, and 1.03±0.34 respectively. Reducing the activity of the signals indicated there has been an increase in the amount of mental fatigue in individuals. Also, using visual analog scale, the individuals have acknowledged that they have experienced symptoms of mental fatigue. Finally, there was no significant relationship between students’ EEG and visual analog scale.

The results showed that alpha, beta and theta indices could be suitable indicators for evaluating mental fatigue. Also, mental fatigue can be one of the factors that affect the accuracy and performance of individuals, so that it can reduce their attention and efficiency.