Vigilance Task-Related Change in Brain Functional Connectivity as Revealed by Wavelet Phase Coherence Analysis of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Signals
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This study investigates how sustained vigilance tasks affect brain functional connectivity, specifically addressing the decline in attention levels associated with prolonged cognitive load, such as driving. The research aims to clarify the relationship between driver attention states and brain activity by assessing changes in connectivity within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and sensorimotor cortical areas. The authors hypothesized that vigilance tasks would induce significant changes in connectivity maps across characteristic frequency bands, providing insights into the neural mechanisms underlying attention decrements. The experimental design involved 20 healthy young adults who underwent continuous near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) monitoring. Participants completed a 10-minute resting state followed by a 20-minute vigilance task designed to simulate driving mental load, requiring them to react to random odd numbers. The task was divided into two 10-minute sessions (Task t1 and Task t2). NIRS signals were analyzed using wavelet phase coherence (WPCO) to evaluate phase synchronization across five frequency intervals: 0.6–2 Hz (I), 0.145–0.6 Hz (II), 0.052–0.145 Hz (III), 0.021–0.052 Hz (IV), and 0.0095–0.021 Hz (V). Intervals I and II were defined as global connectivity (GC) maps, reflecting systemic cardiovascular and respiratory synchronization, while intervals III to V represented functional connectivity (FC) maps, reflecting intrinsic neural activity. Results indicated that reaction times increased in Task t2 compared to Task t1, signaling a decline in attention, although this difference was not statistically significant. Crucially, WPCO analysis revealed that global connectivity levels in interval I and functional connectivity levels in interval III were significantly lower in Task t2 than in the resting state (p < 0.05). This reduction was particularly pronounced in connectivity between the left PFC and bilateral sensorimotor regions. No significant differences in WPCO were observed between Task t1 and the resting state. The findings suggest that the decrease in connectivity at higher frequencies (0.6–2 Hz) was not due to the vigilance task alone but resulted from the interaction between the task and time factors. The study concludes that decreased attention levels during prolonged vigilance tasks are partly attributed to reduced global and functional connectivity between the left prefrontal region and sensorimotor areas. The lower phase synchronization in interval I suggests impaired coordinated regulation of cardiac activity to cerebral circulation, potentially affecting substrate delivery and metabolic waste removal. These findings provide new insights into the neural basis of vigilance-related performance decrements, offering potential implications for designing in-vehicle interfaces and preventing accidents caused by attention lapses.
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| enrich | success | openalex | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-19 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-20 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: physiological data