Zhang Xiaoyu, Dong Xiaoyan, Huang Qiang, Liu Zhe, Wang Qin
National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China; Sinopharm Tongmei General Hospital, Shanxi 037003, China.
National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China; China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, Beijing 100021, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2025 Jan 15;290:117742. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2025.117742. Epub 2025 Jan 23.
Cognitive fatigue in specific occupations may present a risk to personal safety. The study aimed to explore the characteristic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath in response to cognitive fatigue, to provide a scientific basis for the non-invasive exhaled breath diagnostic techniques for cognitive fatigue assessing. Thirty healthy young adults were recruited and assigned to complete two 1.5-hour cognitive fatigue-inducing trials of the N-back task and one control trial of low emotion film watching of the same duration time. The Chalder Fatigue Scale was employed to assess the cognitive fatigue of the subjects before and after the induction and film watching. Exhaled VOCs were collected and detected using a Bio-VOC sampler and Thermal Desorption Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy method. The differences in exhaled VOCs between the pre- and post-induction and film watching was evaluated using either the paired t-test or the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. It was found that the scale scores of the task group (n = 50) significantly increased after the induction, whereas no such findings were observed in the control group (n = 10), indicating that the cognitive fatigue state of the task group was effectively induced through the performance of the N-back task. A total of 15 VOCs were identified in the exhaled breath samples of the task group. And only the level of isoprene changed significantly from 339.77 ± 162.21 μg/m³ to 604.18 ± 230.75 μg/m³ with the induction of cognitive fatigue. In contrast, the change of isoprene in the control group was not statistically significant. The study demonstrated that after inducing cognitive fatigue by N-back task in healthy young subjects, isoprene levels in exhaled breath increased significantly. It suggests that isoprene could be considered a characteristic volatile organic compound in exhaled breath associated with cognitive fatigue.
特定职业中的认知疲劳可能会对个人安全构成风险。本研究旨在探索呼出气体中响应认知疲劳的特征挥发性有机化合物（VOCs），为认知疲劳评估的非侵入性呼出气体诊断技术提供科学依据。招募了30名健康的年轻成年人，让他们完成两项1.5小时的N-back任务认知疲劳诱导试验以及一项相同时长的低情绪电影观看对照试验。使用Chalder疲劳量表评估受试者在诱导和观看电影前后的认知疲劳程度。使用生物VOC采样器和热解吸气相色谱-质谱法收集和检测呼出的VOCs。采用配对t检验或Wilcoxon符号秩检验评估诱导前后和观看电影前后呼出VOCs的差异。结果发现，任务组（n = 50）的量表得分在诱导后显著增加，而对照组（n = 10）未观察到此类结果，表明通过N-back任务的执行有效诱导了任务组的认知疲劳状态。在任务组的呼出气体样本中总共鉴定出15种VOCs。随着认知疲劳的诱导，只有异戊二烯的水平从339.77±162.21μg/m³显著变化至604.18±230.75μg/m³。相比之下，对照组中异戊二烯的变化无统计学意义。该研究表明，在健康年轻受试者中通过N-back任务诱导认知疲劳后，呼出气体中的异戊二烯水平显著增加。这表明异戊二烯可被视为与认知疲劳相关的呼出气体中的特征挥发性有机化合物。
