The Reliability of Sensing Fatigue from Neurophysiology

To date no-study has tested the reproducibility of electroencephalography (EEG) changes that occur during driver fatigue. For the EEG changes to be useful in the development of a fatigue sensing and countermeasure device the EEG response during each onset period of fatigue in individuals needs to be reproducible. The aim of the present study was to investigate the reproducibility of the EEG changes during fatigue in professional drivers in order to identify the feasibility of the EEG measure for a fatigue sensor. Twenty professional drivers were assessed during two separate sessions of a driver simulator task. EEG, eye activity and behavioural measurements of fatigue were obtained during the driving task. The results showed significant reproducibility for the EEG slow wave activity (r >0.95) and fast wave activity (r >0.60). The results have promising implications for the development of an EEG based fatigue-sensing device. The EEG changes during fatigue were reproducible and therefore, appear to be a promising neurophysiological measure, which can be incorporated into an on-line fatigue sensor