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Investigating the Ventral Attention Network, Vigilance, and Cognitive Fatigue Using EEG, Listening Effort, and tACS Neurostimulation Methods

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Corrin Stines¹ (corrin.stines@utsa.edu), Edward Golob¹, Linda Calderon¹, Ricardo Castañeda¹, Jeffrey Mock¹, Juan Fernandez¹, Alyssa Randez¹; ¹The University of Texas at San Antonio

Prior research has implicated a cortical network in the right hemisphere for maintaining attention on vigilance tasks, termed the ventral attention network (VAN). Vigilance tasks typically last 10s of minutes, induce a high mental workload, increase mental fatigue, and influence mood. Coordination between the two key areas of the VAN, the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), likely involves cortical oscillations, which can be non-invasively measured with EEG, but this had not been tested. Experiment 1 utilized EEG to identify oscillations between the TPJ and IFG, revealing theta-band activity (4–8 Hz) as the dominant frequency. Experiment 2 used transcranial AC stimulation (tACS) at the identified theta frequency to determine if performance can be enhanced during an auditory spatial attention task and found that reaction times significantly improved in the tACS group compared to the sham group, though accuracy did not differ. Building on these findings, Experiment 3 is currently testing whether stimulating the VAN with tACS at the theta frequency can also reduce mental workload and cognitive fatigue during a sustained auditory spatial attention task. This study is among the first to explore the relationship between tACS and cognitive fatigue, addressing a significant gap in the literature. Collectively, these findings suggest that theta oscillations play a critical role in VAN activity and may be causally related to attentional vigilance. Real-world applications include non-invasive interventions for mitigating fatigue-related impairments in high-stakes professions, such as healthcare and military operations, as well as therapeutic approaches for neurological and psychological disorders.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Auditory