Personalized Characterization of Sustained Attention/Vigilance in Healthy Children

Abstract

Baseline shifts in electroencephalography (EEG) spectral response, in combination with phasic activity, can result in poor performance in sustaining attention. To explore the contribution of tonic response changes, we studied the 10 s segments preceding cues of correct and incorrect responses during target stimuli of an attention paradigm. The goal was to determine metrics that indicate tonic differences in spectral response between error and no error trials while performing a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) in a non-clinical setting. Data was recorded on 9 healthy children using IMEC’s 8-channel wearable EEG headset with conductive polymer electrodes. In addition to fixed frequency bands, personalized bands based on individual alpha peak frequencies, were computed to account for inter-subject variability. The results indicate that relative theta and alpha power, along with their ratios, is a reliable metric indicating periods of attention or its lapses. The current results are a promising step towards understanding the cognitive responses of a healthy brain and potentially using them to assess the mental health of subjects undergoing training or treatment. Obtaining these results would not be possible without the use of a wireless dry electrode EEG headset, which demonstrates the essential role wearable devices have in monitoring cognition outside the clinical environment.