Perceived mental effort correlates with changes in tonic arousal during attentional tasks

Howells, Fleur M; Stein, Dan J; Russell, Vivienne A

doi:10.1186/1744-9081-6-39

Behavioral and Brain Functions

Table 1 Relationships between perceived mental effort and physiological parameters measured during the three attentional tasks.

From: Perceived mental effort correlates with changes in tonic arousal during attentional tasks

		Continuous Performance Task			Go/No-Go Task			Cued Target Detection Task
		Spearman		*p-value*	Spearman		*p-value*	Spearman		*p-value*
Left frontal (F3)	relative θ (4-7 Hz) power		-0.09	0.533	*	-0.37	0.011	**	-0.33	0.024
	relative α (7-13 Hz) power		-0.08	0.588		0.21	0.16		0.11	0.47
	relative β (13-30 Hz) power		0.08	0.59		0.24	0.115	*	0.39	0.008
	θ/β ratio		-0.11	0.461	**	-0.31	0.035	*	-0.37	0.011
Right frontal (F4)	relative θ (4-7 Hz) power		0.11	0.454		-0.21	0.166	**	-0.34	0.021
	relative α (7-13 Hz) power		-0.1	0.523		0.1	0.522		-0.02	0.912
	relative β (13-30 Hz) power		-0.06	0.696		0.25	0.092	*	0.48	0.001
	θ/β ratio		0.06	0.699		-0.27	0.074	*	-0.43	0.003
Left parietal (P3)	relative θ (4-7 Hz) power		0.04	0.795		-0.16	0.275		-0.18	0.232
	relative α (7-13 Hz) power		-0.27	0.065		0.01	0.949		-0.03	0.819
	relative β (13-30 Hz) power	**	0.29	0.047	*	0.38	0.009	*	0.4	0.006
	θ/β ratio		-0.18	0.237	*	-0.37	0.011	*	-0.38	0.009
Right parietal (P4)	relative θ (4-7 Hz) power		0.01	0.936		-0.17	0.258		-0.23	0.126
	relative α (7-13 Hz) power		-0.22	0.143		-0.01	0.944		0.13	0.399
	relative β (13-30 Hz) power		0.18	0.221	*	0.37	0.01		0.21	0.157
	θ/β ratio		-0.14	0.35	*	-0.36	0.015		-0.25	0.097
P300 latency	Left parietal (P3)		-0.04	0.776		-0.13	0.403		0.01	0.966
	Right parietal (P4)		-0.1	0.504		-0.09	0.564		-0.08	0.579
	Left parietal (P3) for no-go trials					0.01	0.939
	Right parietal (P4) for no-go trials					0.08	0.616
P300 amplitude	Left parietal (P3)		0.12	0.422		-0.02	0.886		-0.05	0.725
	Right parietal (P4)		0.16	0.286		0.02	0.916		-0.05	0.753
	Left parietal (P3) for no-go trials					0.13	0.395
	Right parietal (P4) for no-go trials					0.02	0.88
Response time			-0.04	0.779		0.04	0.773		-0.07	0.624
Errors of inhibition made during no-go conditions						0.11	0.478
Number of skin conductance responses			-0.17	0.249		-0.02	0.907		0.01	0.946
Duration of skin conductance responses			-0.13	0.387		-0.01	0.947		-0.12	0.436
Heart Rate			-0.08	0.608		0.11	0.454		0.01	0.972
Heart rate variance low frequency (0.04-0.15 Hz)			0.12	0.447		0.26	0.085		0.17	0.248
Heart rate variance high frequency(0.15-0.4 Hz)			0.03	0.819	**	-0.32	0.03		-0.24	0.101
Heart rate variance LF/HF			0.07	0.647	**	0.34	0.022		0.25	0.09

Spearman's rank order correlations between physiological parameters and perceived mental effort during each of the three attentional tasks: continuous performance task, go/no-go task, and the cued target detection task (** p < 0.05, * p < 0.01667, n = 46).

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ISSN: 1744-9081

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