Steady State Evoked Responses as a Measure of Tracking Difficulty.
Abstract
This report describes the experimental results of studies undertaken to test the utility of steady state average evoked potentials (AEP) to measure the difficulty level of a tracking task. Transient and steady state AEPs were described with a brief summary of their use to study cognition and visual system function. The first experiment showed an enhanced steady state AEP amplitude at only one stimulus frequency between 36 Hz and 66 Hz. This supported previous findings and also found that the effect resulted from sine wave modulated stimuli and not stroboscopic stimuli. The second study tested the effects of three levels of tracking difficulty upon the amplitude and phase lag of the steady state AEP to 14 Hz and the subject's peak response frequency between 42 Hz and 58 Hz. The phase lag of the high frequency AEP became longer with increased difficulty levels of the tracking task. The medium and high frequency AEP displayed different amplitude and phase characteristics indicating that they were derived from separate cortical sources. The third experiment was designed to examine effects due to differential involvement of the cerebral hemispheres and the subjects' tracking experience at the different levels of tracking difficulty. Neither of the AEP measures were significantly influenced by these variables. Possible application of these results as well as suggestions for future research were discussed. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 30, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA082172
Entities
People
- Glenn F. Wilson
Organizations
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg