Tonic Changes in EEG Power Spectra during Simulated Driving

Electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of driving performance were studied using an event-related lane-departure paradigm. High-density EEG data were analyzed using independent component analysis (ICA) and Fourier analysis. Across subjects and sessions, when reaction time to lane-departure events increased, several clusters of independent component activities in the occipital, posterior parietal, and middle temporal cortex showed tonic power increases in the delta, theta, and alpha bands. The strongest of these tonic power increases occurred in the alpha band in the occipital and parietal regions. Other independent component clusters in the somatomotor and frontal regions showed less or no significant increase in all frequency bands as RT increased. This study demonstrates additional evidence of the close and specific links between cortical brain activities (via charges in EEG spectral power) and performance (reaction time) during sustained-attention tasks. These results may also provide insights into the development of human-computer interfaces for countermeasures for drowsy driving.