The interconnection of mental fatigue and aging: An EEG study

Mental fatigue, a state of reduced alertness and decreased overall performance due to prolonged cognitive activity, is a major cause for a large number of accidents in traffic and industry. Against the background of an aging workforce, the investigation of the interconnection of mental fatigue and aging is of great practical relevance. In the present study, a group of younger and a group of older adults performed a cognitive task for 3h. The experimental design also comprised breaks with various durations. Beside behavioral data, the spectral properties of the ongoing EEG with respect to time on task and breaks were analyzed. No differences between the age groups were found in behavior, but electrophysiological measures provide some evidence that older adults in our study were differentially affected by time on task. In the later course of the experiment modulations in frontal theta power became larger for older, compared to younger adults. This may indicate strain due to task demands, eventually resulting from the deployment of compensatory processes. Occipital alpha, which has been linked to internally oriented brain states, saturates faster in younger adults. It thus maybe, that especially the younger participants' performance deteriorated due to the monotonous nature of the task itself. Both mechanisms, an increased consumption of cognitive resources in older adults and a decrease of motivation in younger adults, could mask differences in performance decrements between the age groups due to mental fatigue.