Bayesian Inference of Hidden Cognitive Performance and Arousal States in Presence of Music

Abstract

Goal: Poor arousal management may lead to reduced cognitive performance. Specifying a model and decoder to infer the cognitive arousal and performance contributes to arousal regulation via non-invasive actuators such as music. Methods: We employ a Bayesian filtering approach within an expectation-maximization framework to track the hidden states during the $n$ -back task in the presence of calming and exciting music. We decode the arousal and performance states from the skin conductance and behavioral signals, respectively. We derive an arousal-performance model based on the Yerkes—Dodson law. We design a performance-based arousal decoder by considering the corresponding performance and skin conductance as the observation. Results: The quantified arousal and performance are presented. The existence of Yerkes—Dodson law can be interpreted from the arousal-performance relationship. Findings display higher matrices of performance within the exciting music. Conclusions: The performance-based arousal decoder has a better agreement with the Yerkes—Dodson law. Our study can be implemented in designing non-invasive closed-loop systems.