Abstract
With the recent surge of affordable, high-performance virtual reality (VR) headsets, there is unlimited potential for applications ranging from education, to training, to entertainment, to fitness and beyond. As these interfaces continue to evolve, passive user-state monitoring can play a key role in expanding the immersive VR experience, and tracking activity for user well-being. By recording physiological signals such as the electroencephalogram (EEG) during use of a VR device, the user's interactions in the virtual environment could be adapted in real-time based on the user's cognitive state. Current VR headsets provide a logical, convenient, and unobtrusive framework for mounting EEG sensors. The present study evaluates the feasibility of passively monitoring cognitive workload via EEG while performing a classical n-back task in an interactive VR environment. Data were collected from 15 participants and the spatio-spectral EEG features were analyzed with respect to task performance. The results indicate that scalp measurements of electrical activity can effectively discriminate three workload levels, even after suppression of a co-varying high-frequency activity.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 401 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
Volume | 13 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 14 Nov 2019 |
Keywords
- cognitive workload
- electroencephalogram (EEG)
- virtual reality
- HTC VIVE
- n-back task
- BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE
- WORKING-MEMORY
- N-BACK
- MENTAL WORKLOAD
- DUAL-TASK
- INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
- MOTOR IMAGERY
- VIGILANCE
- GAMMA
- THETA