Neural Markers of Anticipated Task Difficulty: An EEG Study With Auditory Similarity Judgments
The intricate functions of the human brain, which involve utilizing acquired information from the environment to anticipate future challenges, remain incompletely elucidated. This research aimed to explore the impact on electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of difficulty anticipation by allowing ind...
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| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2025-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11018088/ |
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| author | Zichen Song Hiroshi Higashi Shin Ishii |
| author_facet | Zichen Song Hiroshi Higashi Shin Ishii |
| author_sort | Zichen Song |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The intricate functions of the human brain, which involve utilizing acquired information from the environment to anticipate future challenges, remain incompletely elucidated. This research aimed to explore the impact on electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of difficulty anticipation by allowing individuals to autonomously evaluate task difficulty using auditory cues in order to gain insight into this cognitive process. We designed a similarity problem in which human participants were first presented with two tones, followed by a questioning tone, and were asked to answer which of the first two tones was similar to the questioning tone. We analyzed EEG signals recorded during the presentation of the second of the first two tones, a period during which we assumed the participants were anticipating the upcoming problem. The brain activity related to the anticipation of the task difficulty was extracted by manipulating the similarity of the first two tones in terms of two attributes: position and frequency. We found event-related potentials (N200, N400, P200, P300, LPP, CNV) and alpha band in the frontal and parietal regions were significantly correlated with task difficulty. These results demonstrated the reliability of EEG to evaluate the anticipation of difficulty. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-59f4e4d15fb9411e96df31d6ddadf825 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1534-4320 1558-0210 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering |
| spelling | doaj-art-59f4e4d15fb9411e96df31d6ddadf8252025-08-20T03:24:37ZengIEEEIEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering1534-43201558-02102025-01-01332076208710.1109/TNSRE.2025.357470911018088Neural Markers of Anticipated Task Difficulty: An EEG Study With Auditory Similarity JudgmentsZichen Song0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9309-6233Hiroshi Higashi1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-3411Shin Ishii2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9385-8230Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JapanGraduate School of Engineering, The University of Osaka, Osaka, JapanGraduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JapanThe intricate functions of the human brain, which involve utilizing acquired information from the environment to anticipate future challenges, remain incompletely elucidated. This research aimed to explore the impact on electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of difficulty anticipation by allowing individuals to autonomously evaluate task difficulty using auditory cues in order to gain insight into this cognitive process. We designed a similarity problem in which human participants were first presented with two tones, followed by a questioning tone, and were asked to answer which of the first two tones was similar to the questioning tone. We analyzed EEG signals recorded during the presentation of the second of the first two tones, a period during which we assumed the participants were anticipating the upcoming problem. The brain activity related to the anticipation of the task difficulty was extracted by manipulating the similarity of the first two tones in terms of two attributes: position and frequency. We found event-related potentials (N200, N400, P200, P300, LPP, CNV) and alpha band in the frontal and parietal regions were significantly correlated with task difficulty. These results demonstrated the reliability of EEG to evaluate the anticipation of difficulty.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11018088/Anticipation phaseEEGauditory taskevent-related potentials (ERPs)power spectral density (PSD) |
| spellingShingle | Zichen Song Hiroshi Higashi Shin Ishii Neural Markers of Anticipated Task Difficulty: An EEG Study With Auditory Similarity Judgments IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering Anticipation phase EEG auditory task event-related potentials (ERPs) power spectral density (PSD) |
| title | Neural Markers of Anticipated Task Difficulty: An EEG Study With Auditory Similarity Judgments |
| title_full | Neural Markers of Anticipated Task Difficulty: An EEG Study With Auditory Similarity Judgments |
| title_fullStr | Neural Markers of Anticipated Task Difficulty: An EEG Study With Auditory Similarity Judgments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neural Markers of Anticipated Task Difficulty: An EEG Study With Auditory Similarity Judgments |
| title_short | Neural Markers of Anticipated Task Difficulty: An EEG Study With Auditory Similarity Judgments |
| title_sort | neural markers of anticipated task difficulty an eeg study with auditory similarity judgments |
| topic | Anticipation phase EEG auditory task event-related potentials (ERPs) power spectral density (PSD) |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11018088/ |
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