Physiological Measurements of Vigilance: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Vigilance is the ability to sustain attention for more than 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Maintaining vigilance over a prolonged duration is challenging, and the ability to do so generally declines over time; This is a phenomenon that is known as “vigilance decrement.” Vigilance decrement is often associated with physiological changes. Although previous studies have examined the relationship between physiological responses and vigilance decrement, the results are inconsistent and the trends are not sufficiently clear. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive overview of the existing results, in this paper, we review the most recent studies focusing on physiological changes as indicators of vigilance decrement. We consider electroencephalography (EEG), electrocardiography (ECG), eye movement, and electromyography (EMG). We present an overview of the overall relationship between these measures and vigilance levels; we also highlight the limitations and challenges of previous studies and provide some insight into future research directions in this field.