Abstract
In several fields, the need for a joint analysis of brain activity and eye activity to investigate the association between brain mechanisms and manifest behavior has been felt. In this work, two levels of attentional demand, elicited through a conjunction search task, have been modelled in terms of eye blinks, brain activity, and brain network features. Moreover, the association between endogenous neural mechanisms underlying attentional demand and eye blinks, without imposing a time-locked structure to the analysis, has been investigated. The analysis revealed statistically significant spatial and spectral modulations of the recorded brain activity according to the different levels of attentional demand, and a significant reduction in the number of eye blinks when a higher amount of attentional investment was required. Besides, the integration of information coming from high-density electroencephalography (EEG), brain source localization, and connectivity estimation allowed us to merge spectral and causal information between brain areas, characterizing a comprehensive model of neurophysiological processes behind attentional demand. The analysis of the association between eye and brain-related parameters revealed a statistically significant high correlation (R > 0.7) of eye blink rate with anterofrontal brain activity at 8 Hz, centroparietal brain activity at 12 Hz, and a significant moderate correlation with the participation of right Intra Parietal Sulcus in alpha band (R = −0.62). Due to these findings, this work suggests the possibility of using eye blinks measured from one sensor placed on the forehead as an unobtrusive measure correlating with neural mechanisms underpinning attentional demand.
Highlights
Attention represents a set of cognitive processes that lead to discriminate useful information in a pattern of distractors [1]
It has a decisive role in situational awareness and subsequent decision-making processes: wide pre-attentive processing of environmental features delivers cues for further focused attention because, due to human finite attentional capacities, only a limited amount of information can be processed at a high-level [2]. This is possible thanks to the human ability to move the attentional focus, and this aspect is quite relevant for each multitasking activity performed during everyday life or in most operational working contexts since people can notice only changes inside the focus of attention compatibly with limited cognitive resources [3]. Both deficits in the intensity aspect of attention, due for example to sleepiness, and issues related to the selective processes, due for instance to distraction caused by irrelevant sources of information, could have negative effects on decision making
Electroencephalography (EEG), functional near-infrared, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and magnetoencephalography are the techniques typically used for recording brain activity
Summary
Attention represents a set of cognitive processes that lead to discriminate useful information in a pattern of distractors [1]. This is possible thanks to the human ability to move the attentional focus, and this aspect is quite relevant for each multitasking activity performed during everyday life or in most operational working contexts since people can notice only changes inside the focus of attention compatibly with limited cognitive resources [3] Both deficits in the intensity aspect of attention (i.e., alertness or vigilance level), due for example to sleepiness, and issues related to the selective processes, due for instance to distraction caused by irrelevant sources of information, could have negative effects on decision making. From the instrumental point of view, these techniques are much less obtrusive than high-density EEG; they cannot give direct access to the neurophysiological process
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