Assessment of mental fatigue during VDT task using event-related potential (P300)

Abstract

The study was designed to measure and evaluate mental fatigue induced during VDT tasks using the P300 component of the event-related potential. The experimental task induced mentally and physically fatigued states to each subject from the viewpoints of performance decrement and subjective feeling of fatigue. In accordance with this result, the P300 amplitude tended to decrease after the experimental task. The P300 latency increased after the experimental task. The results indicated that the appearance of fatigue was reflected in the two P300 components, that is, the P300 amplitude and the P300 latency. The prolonged P300 latency that indicated the delayed cognitive information processing and the decreased P300 amplitude that was related to the decreased activity of cognitive information processing were found to be effective measures of mental fatigue.