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EEG-based mental workload estimation of multiple sclerosis patients

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Abstract

The amount of mental capacity required by individuals to complete any task is defined as mental workload. It is important to determine the appropriate level in order not to impose too much mental workload on individuals or not to create unnecessary human resources for the completion of a task. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune neurodegenerative central nervous system disease that activates the acquired and innate immune systems due to the interaction between genetic and environmental factors and manifests itself with different neurological symptoms. This study aims to classify the mental workload level of MS patients as low, medium, or high from EEG signals during cognitive tasks in computer and virtual reality environments and to compare them with a healthy group performing the same tasks. In this study, the mental workload level of 45 volunteers is estimated by using EEG signals and NASA-Raw Task Load Index questionnaire results in 3 cognitive tasks in computer and virtual reality environments. The three-level mental workload classification accuracy in MS patients with the Support Vector Machine classifier is 96.08% and 94.12% for computer and virtual reality environments, respectively. For healthy volunteers, classification accuracy is 95.24% and 94.05% in computer and virtual reality environments, respectively. In the study, mental workload research was conducted for the first time from EEG signals of MS patients obtained during cognitive tasks in computer and virtual reality environments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Kütahya Dumlupınar University, Kütahya, Turkey

    Seda Şaşmaz Karacan, Hamdi Melih Saraoğlu & Mustafa Tosun

  2. Department of Neurology, Kütahya Health Sciences University, Kütahya, Turkey

    Sibel Canbaz Kabay & Gönül Akdağ

  3. Department of Psychology, Istanbul Gedik University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Cahit Keskinkılıç

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  1. Seda Şaşmaz Karacan
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  2. Hamdi Melih Saraoğlu
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  6. Mustafa Tosun
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Correspondence to Seda Şaşmaz Karacan.

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The study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Kütahya Health Sciences University (18.06.2021-2021/03). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Karacan, S.Ş., Saraoğlu, H.M., Kabay, S.C. et al. EEG-based mental workload estimation of multiple sclerosis patients. SIViP 17, 3293–3301 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11760-023-02547-6

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