Arutyunova Karina Rollandovna, Bakhchina Anastasiia Vladimirovna, Konovalov Daniil Igorevich, Margaryan Mane, Filimonov Andrei Viktorovich, Shishalov Ivan Sergeevich
Harman International, HarmanX Neurosense, 30001 Cabot Dr, Novi, MI, 48377, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Dec 30;14(1):31656. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-79728-x.
Cognitive load (CL) is one of the leading factors moderating states and performance among drivers. Heavily increased CL may contribute to the development of mental stress. Averaged heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) indices are shown to reflect CL levels in different tasks. The aim of this large-scale study was to explore how accurately HR and HRV metrics can differentiate between varying CL conditions during driving. Participants (N = 892, 44% female, from 18 to 79 years old) performed simulated driving in highway and urban scenarios. The n-back task was used as a mental distraction to further increase CL. The results have shown that increased CL was accompanied by higher HR, lower HRV, as measured by RMSSD, and higher HR complexity, as measured by permutation entropy. HR displayed the highest accuracy in discriminating between short windows (30 s) of different CL conditions, particularly highway versus urban driving and mental distraction during highway driving. We found gender and age effects on discriminative accuracy of HR and HRV metrics which were related to subjective ratings of CL. These results illustrate that HR and HRV indices provide a valid source for applications in the field of CL monitoring and mental stress detection.
认知负荷（CL）是影响驾驶员状态和表现的主要因素之一。CL大幅增加可能会导致精神压力的产生。平均心率（HR）和心率变异性（HRV）指标已被证明能反映不同任务中的CL水平。这项大规模研究的目的是探讨HR和HRV指标在驾驶过程中区分不同CL状况的准确程度。参与者（N = 892，44%为女性，年龄在18至79岁之间）在高速公路和城市场景中进行模拟驾驶。采用n-back任务作为精神干扰因素以进一步增加CL。结果表明，CL增加伴随着更高的HR、更低的RMSSD测量的HRV以及更高的排列熵测量的HR复杂性。HR在区分不同CL状况的短时间窗口（30秒）时准确率最高，尤其是高速公路驾驶与城市驾驶以及高速公路驾驶时的精神干扰之间的区分。我们发现性别和年龄对HR和HRV指标的辨别准确率有影响，这与CL的主观评分有关。这些结果表明，HR和HRV指标为CL监测和精神压力检测领域的应用提供了有效的数据来源。
