Effect of mental workload on sway of center of gravity

Abstract

The present paper deals with the effect of mental workload on sway of center of gravity. The parameters used for evaluation for the experiment were area of sway of center of gravity, distance of sway, spectral power. Twelve subjects were tested to compare the parameters obtained when the subjects were resting and when the subjects were doing mental arithmetic.
The area of sway of center of gravity obtained after mental work with the eyes open decreased compared to the area of sway obtained after resting, but tended to recover when the subjects rested after mental work. Results obtained while the subjects had their eyes close were quite uneven and therefore no significant difference could be noted. However, in the Romberg quotient, which is the parameter showing how the visual system influences the sway, no differences were detected. Therefore, it can be said that the cause of changes of the sway with eyes open is not visual system influences.
The coefficient of variation in the R-R wave intervals decreased during mental work compared to that obtained during resting and rapidly recovered when the subjects rested after mental work. This proves that the subjects were in a state of psychentonia during mental calculations for mental work.
From the above results, it has become clear that a psychentonia affects the area of sway of center of gravity. It was implied that the mental workload can be measured by sway of center of gravity.