ArticleHuman brain mapping2022
Facing successfully high mental workload and stressors: An fMRI study.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural correlates of acute task-related stress in humans: a systematic review and coordinate-based ALE meta-analysis.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of associations between functional connectivity, mood and cognition in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic review of neurophysiological assessment techniques and metrics for mental workload evaluation in real-world settings.Frontiers in neuroergonomics · 2025Pooled it
- The application of fNIRS in studies on occupational workload: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Acute Stress Impacts Executive-Social Function: Evidence From Prefrontal Activation and fNIRS-Based Hyperscanning.Brain and behavior · 2026Trial
- Network activation and its association with perceived stress underlie performance under stressful high demand.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Non-Invasive Physiological Metrics for Cognitive Load Assessment in Training and Operational Contexts: Signal Processing, Evidence, and Feasibility.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Physiological Measures of Reduced Listening Effort in Active Noise Canceling: Evidence From a Low-β Functional Network in an Event-Related Potential Study.Clinical and experimental otorhinolaryngology · 2026Article
- Associations Between Generative AI Use and Facial Expression-Derived Central Executive Network Indices: A Pilot Study.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- The Impact of Reduced Vision on Simulated Flight Performance in Novice Pilots: Toward Establishing Performance-Based and Operationally Representative Visual Acuity Standards.Human factors · 2025Article
- Unexplored strains and job satisfaction for individuals with visual and auditory impairments: an Italian study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- How can we use social network analysis to better understand Chimpanzee and Gorilla sociality and communication?Animal cognition · 2025Review
- Effects of startle on cognitive performance and physiological activity revealed by fNIRS and thermal imaging.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Short-term microgravity effects simulation does not affect fNIRS measures of cerebral oxygenation changes induced by cognitive load.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Heart rate dynamics for cognitive load estimation in a driving simulation task.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Attenuated processing of task-irrelevant speech and other auditory stimuli: fMRI evidence from arithmetic tasks.The European journal of neuroscience · 2024Article
- Cognitive workload estimation using physiological measures: a review.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2024Article
- Classification of mental workload using brain connectivity and machine learning on electroencephalogram data.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Task learning is subserved by a domain-general brain network.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Evidence for modulation of EEG microstates by mental workload levels and task types.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The present fMRI study aimed at highlighting patterns of brain activations and autonomic activity when confronted with high mental workload and the threat of auditory stressors. Twenty participants performed a complex cognitive task in either safe or aversive conditions. Our results showed that increased mental workload induced recruitment of the lateral frontoparietal executive control network (ECN), along with disengagement of medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate regions of the default mode network (DMN). Mental workload also elicited an increase in heart rate and pupil diameter. Task performance did not decrease under the threat of stressors, most likely due to efficient inhibition of auditory regions, as reflected by a large decrement of activity in the superior temporal gyri. The threat of stressors was also accompanied with deactivations of limbic regions of the salience network (SN), possibly reflecting emotional regulation mechanisms through control from dorsal medial prefrontal and parietal regions, as indicated by functional connectivity analyses. Meanwhile, the threat of stressors induced enhanced ECN activity, likely for improved attentional and cognitive processes toward the task, as suggested by increased lateral prefrontal and parietal activations. These fMRI results suggest that measuring the balance between ECN, SN, and DMN recruitment could be used for objective mental state assessment. In this sense, an extra recruitment of task-related regions and a high ratio of lateral versus medial prefrontal activity may represent a relevant marker of increased but efficient mental effort, while the opposite may indicate a disengagement from the task due to mental overload and/or stressors.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.