Disentangling effects of physical fatigue and cognitive distraction on EEG signals in the braking-intent task

Determine the separate contributions of physical fatigue and cognitive distraction to the electroencephalogram signals recorded during the audio-cued JetBot driving task for braking-intent detection in which participants both climbed stairs before each recording set and answered text messages while driving, in order to disentangle how each factor individually affects the observed neural activity underlying anticipatory potentials.

Background

The study introduces three EEG-based driving experiments for braking-intent detection, including a condition with added physical fatigue (participants climbed 80 stairs before each recording set) and cognitive distraction (participants answered text messages while driving). The authors report increased brain activity and a steeper decline in contingent negative variation during this condition compared to a baseline.

Because both stressors were introduced concurrently, the authors explicitly state that it is not possible to disentangle which effects arise from physical fatigue versus cognitive distraction, though they hypothesize that cognitive distraction predominantly drives the increased activity. Clarifying these contributions is important for interpreting neural markers of intent under realistic driving conditions and for tailoring personalized models in neuromorphic ADAS settings.