Distinguishing cognitive effort and working memory load using scale-invariance and alpha suppression in EEG.

ABSTRACT: Despite being intuitive, cognitive effort has proven difficult to define quantitatively. Here, we proposed to study cognitive effort by investigating the degree to which the brain deviates from its default state, where brain activity is scale-invariant. Specifically, we measured such deviations by examining changes in scale-invariance of brain activity as a function of task difficulty and posited suppression of scale-invariance as a proxy for exertion of cognitive effort. While there is some fMRI evidence supporting this proposition, EEG investigations on the matter are scant, despite the EEG signal being more suitable for analysis of scale invariance (i.e., having a much broader frequency range). In the current study we validated the correspondence between scale-invariance (H) of cortical

SUBMITTER: Kardan O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7134389 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature