Effect of psychoacoustic annoyance on EEG signals of tractor drivers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychoacoustic annoyance (PA) that the tractor drivers are exposed to, and investigate its effects on their brain signals during their work activities. To this aim, the sound of a garden tractor was recorded. Each driver's electroencephalogram (EEG) was then recorded at five different engine speeds. The Higuchi method was used to calculate the fractal dimension of the brain signals. To evaluate the amount of acoustic annoyance that the tractor drivers were exposed to, a psychoacoustic annoyance (PA) model was used. The results showed that as the engine speed increased, the values of PA increased as well. The results also indicated that an increase in the Higuchi's fractal dimension (HFD) of alpha and beta bands was due to the increase of the engine speed. The regression results also revealed that there was a high correlation between the HFD of fast wave activities and PA, in that, the coefficients of determination were 0.92 and 0.91 for alpha and beta bands, respectively. Hence, a good correlation between the EEG signals and PA can be used to develop a mathematical model which quantifies the human brain response to the external stimuli.