A Relationship between Task Difficulty and Interface Design during Meter Inspection: A functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Abstract

Our long-term research objective is to analyze the cognitive process of a subject facing different kind of human-machine interface by applying a procedure of neuroimaging study. In the present study, we investigated brain activity during digital and analog meter inspection tasks with two-difficulty levels using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Twenty-five healthy volunteers participated in this study. The subjects were instructed to inspect the three meters, and to press the appropriate button corresponding to the meter if value of the one of three meters exceeded the upper or lower limit. The different task difficulty was devised by controlling the rate of change for the value to be displayed. The results showed that the activation of the right occipitotemporal junction and the left cerebellar posterior lobule increased due to the task difficulty in the case of analog meter inspection. By contrast, there was no significant difference by the task difficulty in the case of digital meter inspection. Therefore, our results suggested that the effect of a interface design and task difficulty, and its interrelationships for cognitive processes could be evaluated from neuroimaging data.