A novel ERP approach was proposed to index variations in mental workload, particularly in attentional reserve, which is complementary to EEG spectral content thought to reflect mental effort. To our knowledge, no study has assessed mental effort and attentional reserve simultaneously in EEG gel-based and, importantly, dry systems, which are particularly well suited for real-world settings. Therefore, by systematically considering ERP, EEG spectral, and importantly the combination of both, this study examined if a small set of dry EEG electrodes could detect changes in both spectral and ERP metrics to assess the mental workload under various challenges with a similar fidelity to their gel-based counterparts in a laboratory setting. By employing both EEG gel-based and dry systems, the ERP and spectral markers were computed while participants executed a visuomotor task under three levels of challenge. For both EEG systems, more challenging levels of difficulty were associated with concomitant changes in ERP amplitude, and spectral power reflected a reduction of the attentional reserve and an increase in cognitive-motor effort, respectively. Those variations in attentional reserve and cognitive-motor effort collectively indexed mental workload with nearly identical fidelity for both gel-based and dry EEG systems. These findings promise to assess the mental workload in situations where the use of dry EEG systems could be advantageously employed to examine human cognitive-motor performance.

-The present study aimed at investigating changes in behavior (shooting precision) and electrophysiological variables (absolute alpha power) during the motor learning of practical pistol shooting. The sample was composed of 23 healthy subjects, right-handed, male, between 18 and 20 years of age. The task consisted of four learning blocks. A One-way ANOVA with repeated measures and a post hoc analysis were employed to observe modifications on behavioral and electrophysiological measures (p<0.05). The results showed significative differences between blocks according to motor learning, and a significant improvement in shooting's accuracy from both blocks. It was observed a decrease in alpha power in all electrodes examined during task execution when compared with baseline and learning control blocks. The findings suggest that alpha power decreases as the function of the motor learning task when subjects are engaged in the motor execution.Key words: qeeG, pistol shooting, motor learning. Potência absoluta de alfa: aprendizagem motora do tiro prático de pistolaResumo -o presente estudo teve por objetivo investigar alterações nas variáveis comportamentais (precisão do tiro) e eletrofisiológicas (potência absoluta de alfa) durante o aprendizado motor do tiro prático de pistola. A amostra constituiu-se de 20 sujeitos saudáveis, destros, sexo masculino, faixa etária entre 18 e 20 anos. A tarefa consistiu de quatro blocos de aprendizagem. A análise estatística das variáveis comportamentais e eletrofisiológicas foram realizadas por meio de uma ANOVA one-way e uma análise post hoc (p<0,05). os resultados demonstraram diferenças significativas entre os blocos em função do aprendizado motor, bem como uma sensível melhora na precisão do tiro de ambos os blocos. Foi observada uma diminuição na potência de alfa em todos os eletrodos analisados durante a execução da tarefa, quando comparados aos blocos de linha de base e controle da aprendizagem. os achados sugerem que a potência em alfa diminui devido o aprendizado motor quando sujeitos estão engajados na execução de uma tarefa motora complexa.PAlAvrAs-chAve: eeGq, tiro de pistola, aprendizagem motora.

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