Vanderbilt University, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, United States.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, United States; Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, United States.
Neuropsychologia. 2017 Nov;106:371-382. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.10.025. Epub 2017 Oct 20.
Despite growing evidence that prolonged episodes of effortful listening can lead to mental fatigue, little work has been done to examine the patterns of brain activation associated with listening over time. In order to gain a better understanding of the nature of listening-related mental fatigue, this study characterized the effects of sustained auditory processing on brain activation in 19 adults with normal hearing. A 50-min, auditory choice paradigm served as the fatiguing task. Mental fatigue was quantified using subjective (self-report) and behavioral (response time and accuracy) measures, as well as event-related potential (ERP) measures indexing motivation (error-related negativity; ERN) and general arousal (N1). Additional electrical neuroimaging analyses were carried out on ERP datasets. Subjective and behavioral results confirmed that participants became fatigued during the auditory task (data from the first 25min compared with the second 25min). ERPs revealed changes in neural activity consistent with decreased arousal (reduced N1 amplitude). Topographical analyses indicated decreased brain activation, without a change in underlying neural network configuration. Regions of decreased brain activation, as estimated via electrical neuroimaging, suggested a decrease in attention to task stimulus-response characteristics (reduced activation in regions associated with the dorsal attention network). The decrease in mean N1 amplitude revealed a significant, positive correlation with subjective report of reduced motivation. These findings support existing cognitive and neurophysiological models that suggest mental fatigue builds over time on task, and affects motivation to influence task performance. Furthermore, this study shows sustained auditory processing can elicit mental fatigue, and that dorsal parietal activity might provide a useful method of measuring its effects.
尽管越来越多的证据表明，长时间努力倾听会导致精神疲劳，但很少有研究关注与随时间推移的倾听相关的大脑激活模式。为了更好地理解与倾听相关的精神疲劳的本质，本研究在 19 名听力正常的成年人中，对持续听觉处理对大脑激活的影响进行了特征描述。一个 50 分钟的听觉选择范式作为疲劳任务。使用主观（自我报告）和行为（反应时间和准确性）测量以及事件相关电位（ERP）测量来量化精神疲劳，ERP 测量用于索引动机（错误相关负波；ERN）和一般唤醒（N1）。对 ERP 数据集进行了额外的电神经影像学分析。主观和行为结果证实，参与者在听觉任务中变得疲劳（与前 25 分钟相比，第 25 分钟的比较）。ERP 揭示了与唤醒降低一致的神经活动变化（减少 N1 幅度）。地形图分析表明，大脑激活减少，而潜在的神经网络配置没有变化。通过电神经影像学估计的大脑激活减少区域表明，对任务刺激-反应特征的注意力下降（与背侧注意网络相关的区域激活减少）。平均 N1 幅度的降低与主观报告的动机降低呈显著正相关。这些发现支持现有的认知和神经生理学模型，即精神疲劳随着时间的推移在任务中积累，并影响任务表现的动机。此外，本研究表明，持续的听觉处理会引起精神疲劳，并且背侧顶叶活动可能提供一种有用的测量其影响的方法。
