Affiliations: [a] Environmental Technologies Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
| [b] Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Mental fatigue is usually accompanied by a sense of weariness, reduced alertness, and reduced mental performance, which can lead to accidents, decrease of productivity in workplace and several other health hazards. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess mental fatigue of students while reading for a prolonged duration of time by application of electroencephalography (EEG). METHODS: Ten healthy students (27.57±3.4 years; 5 females and 5 males), participated in the study. The experimental design consisted of 5 blocks of 15-min length, in total 75 min for each participant. The experiment was done without any reading activities at the first block. In the following, participants studied the texts and corrected the mistakes. In each block EEG (beta, alpha, and theta power), and the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) were recorded. RESULTS: The mean of the self-assessment of sleepiness by KSS from the first to final 15 minutes were 2.3, 3.4, 4.3, 5.2, and 6.1, respectively. The average power in the theta band decreased from 1.23μV2/Hz at the first 15-min period to 1.02μV2/Hz at the last 15-min period. Also, mean power in the alpha band decreased from 0.85μV2/Hz at the first 15-min period to 0.59μV2/Hz at the last 15-min period. Conclusion: The study showed that the KSS and EEG activity indicate sleepiness which were highly correlated, with both changing along with performance.
