EEG Information Transfer Changes in Different Daily Fatigue Levels During Drowsy Driving

A significant issue for traffic safety has been drowsy driving for decades. A number of studies have investigated the effects of acute fatigue on spectral power; and recent research has revealed that drowsy driving is associated with a variety of brain connections in a specific cortico-cortical pathway. In spite of this, it is still unclear how different brain regions are connected in drowsy driving at different levels of daily fatigue. This study identified the brain connectivity-behavior relationship among three different daily fatigue levels (low-, median- and high-fatigue) with the EEG data transfer entropy. According to the results, only low- and medium-fatigue groups demonstrated an inverted U-shaped change in connectivity from high performance to poor behavioral performance. In addition, from low- to high-fatigue groups, connectivity magnitude decreased in the frontal region and increased in the occipital region. These study results suggest that brain connectivity and driving behavior would be affected by different levels of daily fatigue.