The long duration and repetitive nature of watchstanding in the Navy triggers mental fatigue, which would cause a decline in working memory functions and response time. To minimize the damage caused by fatigue, it is necessary to understand how physiological parameters changes during the fatigue. According to recent researches, heart rate variability (HRV) can be calculated from photoplethysmogram (PPG) to indicate nervous system activity. N-back M-pitch, a cognitive working memory test was utilized to define the level of fatigue. An increase in fatigue was indicated by decrease in the accuracy of the test. In this project, HRV's high frequency area and low frequency area have been found correlated to mental fatigue and change over time as hypothesized.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Fu, Ningxin
• Ding, Fangjie
• Alsamarai, Sinan Saad
• Xu, Yichao Joy

Contributors

• Qin, Michael

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042612-122912

Advisor

• Mendelson, Yitzhak
• Chon, Ki H.

Year

• 2012

Sponsor

• Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory

Date created

• 2012-04-26

Location

• Groton

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Electrical & Computer Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright

License

• All rights reserved