Driver fatigue: Electroencephalography and psychological assessment

Abstract

Fatigue has major implications for transportation system safety; therefore, investigating the psychophysiological links to fatigue could enhance our understanding and management of fatigue in the transport industry. This study examined the psychophysiological changes that occurred during a driver simulator task in 35 randomly selected subjects. Results showed that significant electroencephalographic changes occur during fatigue. Delta and theta activity were found to increase significantly during fatigue. Heart rate was significantly lower after the driving task. Blink rate also changed during the fatigue task. Increased trait anxiety, tension-anxiety, fatigue-inertia and reduced vigor-activity were shown to be associated with neurophysiological indicators of fatigue such as increased delta and theta activity. The results are discussed in light of directions for future studies and for the development of a fatigue countermeasure device.

Driver performance in the moments surrounding a microsleep

“…Although we used expert visual inspection of the EEG to identify microsleeps according to generally accepted criteria, this technique is inherently subjective. Several studies have used "quantitative" EEG methods to identify driver sleepiness (de Waard & Brookhuis, 1991;Eoh et al, 2005;Kecklund & Akerstedt, 1993;Horne & Reyner, 1996;Lal & Craig, 2002). Alpha and theta power (usually expressed as the relative power of alpha + theta/beta), and the frequency of alpha and theta bursts typically increase during prolonged driving, and are associated with poor driving performance.…”

“…Paul et al (2005b) showed that drivers had greater variation in steering and lane position during microsleep episodes when compared to the periods before and after a microsleep. Lal and Craig (2002) identified early signs of sleepiness in a driving simulator task using EEG that was later proposed for fatigue-detection countermeasure systems (Lal et al, 2003).…”

A New Method to Detect Driver Fatigue Based on EMG and ECG Collected by Portable Non-Contact Sensors

“…Also, she thought ApEn of EMG had better relationship with driver fatigue. Lal and Craig [4] thought that ECG was an effective physiological signal to evaluate driver fatigue, and they found a significant and large decrease in heart rate in the driving process. Recently, an algorithm for the identification of alpha spindles was described by Simon [5].…”

Single Channel Wireless EEG: Proposed Application in Train Drivers

“…Driver fatigue is a process that involves successive episodes of micro-sleeps, where the subject may go in and out of a fatigue state [6]. EEG has been used in many driver studies conducted in the lab and field [5,[7][8][9][10], and is one of the most reliable indicators of fatigue [11]. Studies have found that EEG has acceptable test and retest reliability [6,[12][13][14][15].…”

“…Lal & Craig [7] reported increases in slow wave brain activity with driver fatigue. Delta (0-4 Hz) and theta (4)(5)(6)(7)(8) activities have been found to increase as one gets fatigued [16]. Jap et al [17] found significant decreasing trends of alpha (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13), and beta Hz) activities as fatigue increases.…”