EEG-based system for Executive Function fatigue detection

An experimental campaign to prove the feasibility of electroencephalography (EEG)-based detection of the level of Executive Function (EF) fatigue is carried out. This work is a preliminary step to investigate EF fatigue during gait, therefore the proposed measurement instrumentation is highly wearable and suitable for use in movement. The employed instrumentation (i) acquires the EEG signal, (ii) allows the subject to perform cognitive tasks of increasing complexity based on acoustic stimuli, (iii) extracts the EEG features from the acquired data and (iv) detects a more or less intense EFs activation. The main EEG features proposed in the literature for EF analysis were considered. In particular, Power Spectral Density (PSD) in five EEG bands are tested to assess the fatigue of inhibition and working memory. The feasibility was verified on five healthy subjects. The proposed signal processing pipeline allows to achieve around 79 % and 81 % average accuracy in detecting the level of EF fatigue for inhibition and working memory, respectively.