Arousal State Research Articles

The Association between Low Blood Pressure and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Observed in Children/Adolescents Does Not Persist into Young Adulthood. A Population-Based Ten-Year Follow-Up Study

Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common behavioral disorders in childhood and adolescence associated with relevant psychosocial impairments. The basic pathophysiology of ADHD may be related, at least partly, to a deficit in autonomic arousal processes, which not only influence core symptoms of the disorder, but may also lead to blood pressure (BP) deviations due to altered arousal regulation. Objectives: This study examined long-term changes in BP in children and adolescents with ADHD up to young adulthood. Methods: In children and adolescents aged between 7 and 17 years at baseline, we compared BP recordings in subjects with (n = 1219, 11.1%) and without (n = 9741, 88.9%) ADHD over a 10-year follow-up using data from the nationwide German Health Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS). Propensity score matching was used to improve the comparability between children in the ADHD and control groups with now n = 1.190 in each group. Results: The results of these matched samples revealed that study participants with ADHD showed significantly lower systolic BP (107.6 ± 10.7 mmHg vs. 109.5 ± 10.9 mmHg, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.17) and diastolic BP (64.6 ± 7.5 mmHg vs. 65.8 ± 7.4 mmHg, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.16) at baseline. In a sensitivity analysis with a smaller (n = 272) and more stringently diagnosed ADHD group, the significant differences remained stable with somewhat higher Cohen’s d; i.e., 0.25 and 0.27, respectively. However, these differences did not persist after 10-year follow-up in a smaller matched longitudinal sub-group (ADHD n = 273; control n = 323), as subjects with and without ADHD had similar levels of systolic (123.4 ± 10.65 vs. 123.78 ± 11.1 mmHg, p = 0.675, Cohen’s d = 0.15) and diastolic BP (71.86 ± 6.84 vs. 71.85 ± 7.06 mmHg, p = 0.992, Cohen’s d = 0.16). Conclusions: At baseline, children and adolescents with ADHD had significantly lower BP (of small effect sizes) compared to the non-ADHD group, whereas this difference was no longer detectable at follow-up ten years later. These developmental alterations in BP from adolescence to early adulthood may reflect changes in the state of autonomic arousal, probably modulating the pathophysiology of ADHD.

Sensorimotor Intervention Group for Children with ADHD and Sensory Processing Difficulties: A Feasibility Study

Many children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) also have sensory processing difficulties, yet there are few evidence-based interventions that target both. We explored the feasibility of a 4-week group intervention using “How Does Your Engine Run?”®—The Alert Program for Self-Regulation (AP) for children with ADHD and sensory processing difficulties. Sixteen children (aged 8–12 years) and their parents were randomly assigned to an active treatment or a delayed treatment control group. The AP taught families to recognize child arousal states and to use sensorimotor strategies to manage levels of alertness. Parent-reported ratings of child outcomes were completed at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up. Treatment acceptability and satisfaction were high. Compared to pre-treatment and control group, large effects were found in which families increased their knowledge and use of sensorimotor strategies, and improved child ADHD symptoms after participating in the AP, and these effects were maintained at 3-month follow-up. Families that reported greater knowledge and use of strategies were those with children that had greater underresponsive/sensory seeking profiles and those with children with greater conduct problems. This study shows preliminary support for the AP for children with ADHD and sensory processing difficulties, to be further examined with larger sample sizes and methodological enhancements.

Deep Brain Stimulation in Alzheimer's Disease: Targeting the Nucleus Basalis of Meynert.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is becoming a prevalent disease in the elderly population. Past decades have witnessed the development of drug therapies with varying targets. However, all drugs with a single molecular target fail to reverse or ameliorate AD progression, which ultimately results in cortical and subcortical network dysregulation. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been proven effective for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and other neurological diseases. As such, DBS has also been gradually acknowledged as a potential therapy for AD. The current review focuses on DBS of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM). As a critical component of the cerebral cholinergic system and the Papez circuit in the basal ganglia, the NBM plays an indispensable role in the subcortical regulation of memory, attention, and arousal state, which makes the NBM a promising target for modulation of neural network dysfunction and AD treatment. We summarized the intricate projection relations and functionality of the NBM, current approaches for stereotactic localization and evaluation of the NBM, and the therapeutic effects of NBM-DBS both in patients and animal models. Furthermore, the current shortcomings of NBM-DBS, such as variations in cortical blood flow, increased temperature in the target area, and stimulation-related neural damage, were presented.

Vagus Nerve Stimulation Induces Widespread Cortical and Behavioral Activation

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is used for management of a variety of neurological conditions, although the therapeutic mechanisms are not fully understood. Accumulating evidence suggests that VNS may modulate cortical state and plasticity through activation of broadly projecting neuromodulatory systems. Using a mouse model, we compared arousal-linked behaviors with dorsal cortical activity obtained with widefield and 2-photon GCaMP6s calcium imaging and electrophysiological recordings. We observed robust and reliable cortical and behavioral dose-dependent activation in waking mice to VNS, including pupil dilation and frequently, whisker movements and locomotion. Widefield calcium imaging and multiunit recording during VNS revealed that this observed increase in arousal state is coupled with a rapid and widespread increase in excitatory activity, including, but not limited to, activation of visual, motor, retrosplenial, auditory, and barrel cortical regions. Two-photon GCaMP6s calcium imaging of cholinergic and noradrenergic cortical axons revealed that VNS strongly activates these neuromodulatory systems. Importantly, VNS-evoked activation of neuromodulatory axons and excitatory neurons in the cortex persisted in mice under light anesthesia, in the absence of overt movement, and arousal state changes were abolished by vagus nerve transection, confirming that observed VNS effects were specific to nerve stimulation and triggered widespread activity above that which can be explained by motor activity. Taken together, our results support a model of VNS in which activation of subcortical structures leads to widespread activation of cortex and an increase in arousal state, at least partially due to the activation of cholinergic and noradrenergic modulatory pathways.

A novel dynamic brain network in arousal for brain states and emotion analysis.

Brain network can be well used in emotion analysis to analyze the brain state of subjects. A novel dynamic brain network in arousal is proposed to analyze brain states and emotion with Electroencephalography (EEG) signals. New Method: Time factors is integrated to construct a dynamic brain network under high and low arousal conditions. The transfer entropy is adopted in the dynamic brain network. In order to ensure the authenticity of dynamics and connections, surrogate data are used for testing and analysis. Channel norm information features are proposed to optimize the data and evaluate the level of activity of the brain. The frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and parietal lobe provide the most information about emotion arousal. The corresponding stimulation state is not maintained at all times. The number of active brain networks under high arousal conditions is generally higher than those under low arousal conditions. More consecutive networks show high activity under high arousal conditions among these active brain networks. The results of the significance analysis of the features indicates that there is a significant difference between high and low arousal. Comparison with Existing Method(s): Compared with traditional methods, the method proposed in this paper can analyze the changes of subjects' brain state over time in more detail. The proposed features can be used to quantify the brain network for accurate analysis. The proposed dynamic brain network bridges the research gaps in lacking time resolution and arousal conditions in emotion analysis. We can clearly get the dynamic changes of the overall and local details of the brain under high and low arousal conditions. Furthermore, the active segments and brain regions of the subjects were quantified and evaluated by channel norm information.This method can be used to realize the feature extraction and dynamic analysis of the arousal dimension of emotional EEG, further explore the emotional dimension model, and also play an auxiliary role in emotional analysis.

Emotions in Economics: Maximization need not be Rational

Lab experiments have revealed that animals sometimes outperform human-beings in terms of instrumental rationality. The current essay argues that constrained maximization tendency with consistency of preferences are perhaps genetically imbibed behavior of organism, and such examples display a behavior which is a-rational, i.e. not in the ambit of rationality. Examining the concept of rationality from the perspective of Dual-Systems theory, the current paper asserts that, by virtue of its similarity to animal cognition a part of human mind (system-1) is a myopic and impulsive maximizer with nature defined preferences outside rationality domain. This impulsive and myopic nature of maximization explains why phenomenon like choice overload, regret for non-maximizing choices could be observed in human behavior, and why addiction can not be termed as rational. Emotions as a basis of human action has eluded economic theory, and this essay attempts to fill this gap by introducing emotions as a basis for economic action by explaining why people in the state of arousal (dominated by system-1) act differently than their own sensible self (with system-2 as a watchdog) when they are cool.

Pupillometry: Arousal State or State of Mind?

Norepinephrine and acetylcholine regulate brain activity during changes in arousal and attention that are also reflected in fluctuations of the pupil. New research suggests that during goal-directed behavior, serotonin is also associated with pupil dilation.

The Role of Arousal and Retention Interval on Eyewitness Memory

Resumo Presenciar um crime é uma situação de grande estresse e com forte carga emocional, fatores diretamente relacionados à qualidade do relato de testemunhas oculares. Em dois experimentos, participantes assistiram a eventos com diferentes cargas emocionais (neutro, assalto ou assassinato) e forneceram seus relatos após diferentes intervalos de retenção (teste imediato, 7 dias, 14 dias ou 21 dias). Os resultados mostraram que a carga emocional não teve efeito na memória de testemunhas para aspectos do crime e características do criminoso. O evento com maior carga emocional teve um efeito benéfico na memória após um intervalo de 7 dias, mas tal efeito não ocorreu em intervalos mais longos. Implicações teóricas e práticas relacionadas à interpretação do relato de testemunhas são discutidas.

The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Time Perception in Depressed Patients.

PurposeThe aim of the present study was to examine the effects of emotional state on time perception in patients with depression and to investigate if time perception in patients with depression could be changed by induced emotional state.Patients and MethodsA clinically-depressed (CD, n=19) and non-depressed (ND, n=22) group viewed four video clips of different levels of valence and arousal (ie, positive-high arousal, positive-low arousal, negative-high arousal, negative-low arousal). After inducing emotion state, all participants performed a time perception task to measure differences in the perception of time.ResultsThe results showed that the CD group perceived time passing more slowly than the ND group at baseline and in all conditions, especially in the negative-low arousal condition. The ND group perceived time passed more quickly in the positive-high arousal condition compared to the CD group. These results indicate that emotional state with combined valence and arousal factors could change time perception in patients with depression.ConclusionBased on these results, it is suggested that changing the emotional state of the depressive patient by considering valence as well as arousal is important to improve the distortion on time perception.

Эмоциональное выгорание врача-терапевта участкового

Based on the results of assessments of the dependences of the level of psychoemotional load of a primary care physician (PHC) (district physician) on medical and social problems related to the conditions of his activity, measures have been developed for stress resistance and health saving of a district physician (VTU). The Orenburg region with a population of almost 2 million people was the pilot territory (base) for the study. The region has 12 cities and 35 rural districts, the share of the rural population is 40.1%. Research materials und methods: sociological, direct observation, statistical: 1014 questionnaires of survey of district physicians (93% of the total number of VTU) were subjected to statistical processing. The study included 4 stages. At the first stage, sociological surveys of district physicians working in medical organizations located in urban and rural settlements were carried out (568 and 446 VTU, respectively). At the second stage of the study, the level of psychoemotional burnout was assessed using the modified method of V. V. Boyko (2010) “Diagnostics of the level of emotional burnout”. At the third stage of the study, we calculated the statistically significant correlation of the symptom of professional burnout (SPEV) with factors related to medical and social problems of the professional activity of the local GP. At the fourth stage of the study, a set of measures has been developed and is being implemented to increase emotional stability in the professional activity of the local GP. Relevance. WHO classifies occupational stress as a disease of the twentieth century, which can manifest itself in any profession and can reach the size of a “global epidemic”. The accumulation of negative emotions in the profession of a doctor can lead to psycho-emotional exhaustion and the formation of the syndrome of “emotional burnout”. A necessary quality of a primary care physician is emotional stability. This is the ability to overcome a state of excessive emotional arousal. Of particular importance is the development of professional burnout and the assessment of professional stability for district physicians who make first contact with the patient. Results. Measures have been developed to increase the effectiveness of emotional (professional) stability in the activities of VTU. Conclusion: Emotional stability in the doctor’s work allows you to maintain and further increase the effectiveness of professional activities. The obtained research results were used for the development of the “program for the modernization of health care in the Orenburg region”. They were used in the development of the Software product of the Ministry of health of the Orenburg region.

ЭЛЕКТРОФИЗИОЛОГИЧЕСКОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ОСЦИЛЛЯТОРНОЙ АКТИВНОСТИ МОЗГА ОБЕЗЬЯН MACACA MULATTA

It is well known that rhythmic light stimulation can alter the electrical activity of the human and animal brain. Moreover, the brain response to certain flicker frequencies significantly exceeds the responses to neighboring frequencies. This phenomenon is thought to be related with the effect of resonance, as evidenced by the coincidence of one of the maxima in the profile of the response to flashes with the frequency of the alpha rhythm. However, other frequencies that cause an increased response to flashes are not reflected in electroencephalogram (EEG) as dominant oscillations. The goal of this study was to reveal the relationship between local maxima in the profile of the responses to flashes of different frequencies and dominant brain oscillations recorded in electrocorticogram (ECoG) of rhesus monkeys without stimulation. The study was carried out on four male Macaca mulatta individuals. In three animals, peak responses were elicited by flickers at 8 and 16 Hz, while one monkey showed a second peak in the 22−30 Hz range. The first maximum (8−10 Hz) in the profile of the response to rhythmic photostimulation coincided with the dominant rhythm recorded in the occipital and parietal regions at rest. The second maximum at 16 Hz coincided with the dominant ECoG rhythm in one of the primates when it was in the state of emotional arousal, which may account for the resonant origin of the increase in responses in this frequency range. The data obtained indicate that dominant brain rhythms, including latent rhythms revealed only by rhythmic photostimulation, can coincide in frequency in monkeys and humans. Neuronal mechanisms of selective sensitivity of neural networks to different frequencies of photostimulation are discussed.

Incorporating Structural Plasticity Approaches in Spiking Neural Networks for EEG Modelling

Structural Plasticity (SP) in the brain is a process that allows structural neuronal changes, in response to learning. Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) are an emerging form of artificial neural networks that use brain-inspired techniques to learn. However, the application of SP in SNNs, its impact on overall learning, and network behaviour is rarely explored. In the present study, we use an SNN with a single hidden layer, to apply SP in classifying Electroencephalography (EEG) signals of two publicly available datasets. We considered classification accuracy as the learning capability and applied metaheuristics to derive the optimised number of neurons for the hidden layer along with other hyperparameters of the network. The optimised structure was then compared with overgrown and undergrown structures to compare the accuracy, stability, and behaviour of the network properties. Networks with SP yielded ~94% and ~92% accuracies in classifying wrist positions and mental states(stressed vs relaxed) respectively. The same SNN developed for mental stress classification produced ~77% and ~73% accuracies in classifying arousal and valence states. Moreover, the networks with SP demonstrated superior performance stability during iterative random initiations. Interestingly, these networks had a smaller number of inactive neurons and a preference for lowered neuron firing thresholds. This research highlights the importance of systematically selecting the hidden layer neurons over arbitrary settings, particularly for SNNs using Spike Time Dependent Plasticity learning and provides potential findings that may lead to the development of SP learning algorithms for SNNs.

Seeing others yawn selectively enhances vigilance: an eye-tracking study of snake detection.

While the origin of yawning appears to be physiologic, yawns may also hold a derived communicative functionin social species. In particular, the arousal reduction hypothesis states that yawning signals to others that the actor is experiencing a down regulation of arousal and vigilance. If true, seeinganother individual yawn might enhance the vigilance of observers to compensate for the reduced mental processing of the yawner. This was tested in humans by assessing how exposure to yawning stimuli alters performance on visual search tasks for detecting snakes (a threatening stimulus) and frogs (a neutral stimulus). In a repeated-measures design, 38 participants completed these tasks separately after viewing yawning and control videos. Eye-tracking was used to measure detection latency and distractor fixation frequency. Replicating previous evolutionary-based research, snakes were detected more rapidly than frogs across trials. Moreover, consistent with the view that yawning holds a distinct signaling function, there were significant interactions for both detection latency and distractor fixation frequency showing that vigilance was selectively enhanced following exposure to yawns. That is, after viewing videos of other people yawning, participants detected snakes more rapidly and were less likely to fixate on distractor frogs during trials. These findings provide the first experimental evidence for a social function to yawning in any species, and imply the presence of a previously unidentified psychological adaptation for preserving group vigilance.

Get Hard or Die Trying: Impotence and the Displacement of the White Male in Michel Houellebecq's Sérotonine

Taking up Paul Preciado's theories in his book Testo Junkie (2013) concerning contemporary biocapitalism, this essay argues that Michel Houellebecq's latest novel, Sérotonine (2019), represents a radical move away from the hegemony of the white cis-male, heterosexual body depicted in his earlier literary corpus. The narrator of Sérotonine is stripped of his sexual capacity by an antidepressant that makes him impotent. Once unable to escape the stimuli and commodities designed to incite pleasure, thus leaving the body in a constant state of arousal, Houellebecq's male subject is now unequivocally portrayed as being flaccid. Rather than disclose a sense of reconciliation or resignation with the market, the novel reveals an expulsion from it entirely. The narrator's futile attempts to reinstate his male dominance further demonstrate the totalizing presence of sex, pleasure, and pharmaceutical drugs in Houellebecq's novels and attest to the notion that the once-hegemonic male body of his literary universe is now simply hanging on to life itself as contemporary biocapitalism careens forward on its never-ending quest to maximize pleasure and desire.

The development system of biotech management of reproduction fish populations based on neuroendocrinological research

The participation of the hypothalamo-hypophysial neurosecretory system (HHNS) in fish reproduction was established by ecologo-histophysiological research with the help of light-, electronmicroscopy and immunocytochemistry. At the beginning of migrations of passing fish an active synthesis of neurosecretory products in pericarions of neurosecretory cells and their excretion into the cavity of the III brain ventricle was stated, while a mass accumulation of them in neurohypophysis occurs. Firstly, the excretion of neurohormones into the brain’s liquor should cause their neurotropic effect on the CNS behavior centers in the form of a dominant state of arousal, designated as “migration impulse”. Then HHNS initiates spawning behavior at the beginning of spawning and completes it by participating in overcoming natural physiological stress. In fish reproduction the main functional role of HHNS is to initiate reproductive energy-intensive processes of migratory and spawning behaviors, and to completion spawning by suppressing the hyperactivity of the target glands, ensuring the body’s transition to energysaving plastic metabolic exchange. The analysis of the key role of HHNS in fish reproduction has allowed to present a constructive working scheme of its neuroendocrine integration by the principle of self-regulation and to develop, on this basis, the system management of biotech reproduction of fish populations.

Hypocretin/Orexin Receptor Pharmacology and Sleep Phases.

The hypocretins/orexins are two excitatory neuropeptides, alternately called HCRT1 or orexin-A and HCRT2 or orexin-B, that are the endogenous ligands for two G-protein-coupled receptors, HCRTR1/OX1R and HCRTR2/OX2R. Shortly after the discovery of this system, degeneration of hypocretin/orexin-producing neurons was implicated in the etiology of the sleep disorder narcolepsy. The involvement of this system in a disorder characterized by the loss of control over arousal state boundaries also suggested its role as a critical component of endogenous sleep-wake regulatory circuitry. The broad projections of the hypocretin/orexin-producing neurons, along with differential expression of the two receptors in the projection fields of these neurons, suggest distinct roles for these receptors. While HCRTR1/OX1R is associated with regulation of motivation, reward, and autonomic functions, HCRTR2/OX2R is strongly linked to sleep-wake control. The association of hypocretin/orexin with these physiological processes has led to intense interest in the therapeutic potential of compounds targeting these receptors. Agonists and antagonists for the hypocretin/orexin receptors have shown potential for the treatment of disorders of excessive daytime somnolence and nocturnal hyperarousal, respectively, with the first antagonists approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2014 and 2019 for the treatment of insomnia. These and related compounds have also been useful tools to advance hypocretin/orexin neurobiology.

Breath-hold task induces temporal heterogeneity in electroencephalographic regional field power in healthy subjects.

We demonstrated that changes in CO2 values cause oscillations in the cortical activity in δ-and α-bands. The analysis of the regional field power (RFP) showed evidence that different cortical areas respond with different time delays to CO2 challenges. An opposite behavior was found for the end-tidal O2. We suppose that the different cortical time delays likely expresse specific ascending pathways to the cortex, generated by chemoreceptor nuclei in the brain stem. Although the brain stem is in charge of the automatic control of ventilation, the cortex is involved in the voluntary control of breathing but also receives inputs from the brain stem, which influences the perception of breathing, the arousal state and sleep architecture in conditions of hypoxia/hypercapnia. We evaluated in 11 healthy subjects the effects of breath hold (BH; 30 s of apneas and 30 s of normal breathing) and BH-related CO2/O2 changes on electroencephalogram (EEG) global field power (GFP) and RFP in nine different areas (3 rostrocaudal sections: anterior, central, and posterior; and 3 sagittal sections: left, middle, and right) in the δ- and α-bands by cross correlation analysis. No significant differences were observed in GFP or RFP when comparing free breathing (FB) with the BH task. Within the BH task, the shift from apnea to normal ventilation was accompanied by an increase in the δ-power and a decrease in the α-power. The end-tidal pressure of CO2 ([Formula: see text]) was positively correlated with the δ-band and negatively with the α- band with a positive time shift, whereas an opposite behavior was found for the end-tidal pressure of O2 ([Formula: see text]). Notably, the time shift between [Formula: see text] / [Formula: see text] signals and cortical activity at RFP was heterogenous and seemed to follow a hierarchical activation, with the δ-band responding earlier than the α-band. Overall, these findings suggest that the effect of BH on the cortex may follow specific ascending pathways from the brain stem and be related to chemoreflex stimulation.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We demonstrated that the end tidal CO2 oscillation causes oscillations of delta and alpha bands. The analysis of the regional field power showed that different cortical areas respond with different time delays to CO2 challenges. An opposite behavior was found for the end-tidal O2. We can suppose that the different cortical time delay response likely expresses specific ascending pathways to the cortex generated by chemoreceptor nuclei in the brainstem.

NREM sleep stages specifically alter dynamical integration of large-scale brain networks.

SummaryFunctional dissociations in the brain observed during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep have been associated with reduced information integration and impaired consciousness that accompany increasing sleep depth. Here, we explored the dynamical properties of large-scale functional brain networks derived from transient brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Spatial brain maps generally display significant modifications in terms of their tendency to occur across wakefulness and NREM sleep. Unexpectedly, almost all networks predominated in activity during NREM stage 2 before an abrupt loss of activity is observed in NREM stage 3. Yet, functional connectivity and mutual dependencies between these networks progressively broke down with increasing sleep depth. Thus, the efficiency of information transfer during NREM stage 2 is low despite the high attempt to communicate. Critically, our approach provides relevant data for evaluating functional brain network integrity and our findings robustly support a significant advance in our neural models of human sleep and consciousness.

In infancy, it's the extremes of arousal that are 'sticky': Naturalistic data challenge purely homeostatic approaches to studying self-regulation.

Most theoretical models of arousal/regulatory function emphasise the maintenance of homeostasis; consistent with this, most previous research into arousal has concentrated on examining individuals' recovery following the administration of experimentally administered stressors. Here, we take a different approach: we recorded day-long spontaneous fluctuations in autonomic arousal (indexed via electrocardiogram, heart rate variability and actigraphy) in a cohort of 82 typically developing 12-month-old infants while they were at home and awake. Based on the aforementioned models, we hypothesised that extreme high or low arousal states might be more short-lived than intermediate arousal states. Our results suggested that, contrary to this, both low- and high-arousal states were more persistent than intermediate arousal states. The same pattern was present when the data were viewed over multiple epoch sizes from 1s to 5min; over 10-15-minute time-scales, high-arousal states were more persistent than low- and intermediate states. One possible explanation for these findings is that extreme arousal states have intrinsically greater hysteresis; another is that, through 'metastatic' processes, small initial increases and decreases in arousal can become progressively amplified over time. Rather than exclusively using experimental paradigms to study recovery, we argue that future research should also use naturalistic data to study the mechanisms through which states can be maintained or amplified over time.

Driver Arousal and Workload Under Partial Vehicle Automation: A Pilot Study

Semi-automated vehicles (Level-2) provide driving assistance, but they still require driver supervision to maintain safe driving. However, little is known about potential differences in drivers’ cognitive states during manual vs. Level-2 automated driving. The current study systematically examined the effects of manual and Level-2 driving on drivers’ arousal and workload during on-road driving. No differences between the two driving modes were found for the five outcomes that assessed cognitive arousal and workload (i.e., heart rate, root mean square of successive heart period differences, EEG alpha power, and hit rate and reaction time on a secondary task). A Bayes Factor analysis suggested that there is strong evidence that cognitive arousal and workload during Level-2 driving did not differ from manual driving. These novel and theoretically meaningful findings provide strong evidence of similar cognitive arousal and workload states in Level-2 automation and manual driving.