Influence of thermal environment on occipital EEG signal amplitude in sedentary activities

Abstract

Even in sedentary activities, the workload is justifying more accurate studies about its impact on human beings mainly when related to different temperature and humidity conditions. One of these impacts is related to mental activity, which can be studied by the amplitude of Alpha and Beta waves. This study aims to evaluate brain activity in the occipital lobe from the amplitude of the EEG signal (Alpha and Beta waves) and to relate it to different conditions of temperature and relative humidity (RH) in sedentary tasks. Tests were performed under four different conditions (22°C-40%RH, 22°C-80%RH, 32°C-40%RH and 32°C, 80%RH) with 30 volunteers from which 15 were validated. Results suggest that both temperature and humidity influence the amplitude of the EEG signal (Alpha and Beta waves) in both hemispheres. The greatest amplitudes were found whenever environmental temperature and/or relative humidity values were higher. The results are in agreement with other authors.