Neurophysiological and Behavioral Differences in Human-Multiagent Tasks: An EEG Network Perspective

Abstract

Effective human-multiagent teams will incorporate the cognitive skills of the human with the autonomous capabilities of the multiagent group to maximize task performance. However, producing a seamless fusion requires a greater understanding of the human’s cognitive state as it reacts to uncertainties in both the task environment and agent dynamics. This study examines external behaviors in concert with neurophysiological measures acquired via electroencephalography (EEG) to probe the interactions between cognitive processes, behaviors, and performance in a human-multiagent team task. We show that changes in the α (8–12 Hz) and θ (4–8 Hz) bands of EEG indicate a higher burden on the cognitive resources associated with visual-spatial reasoning required to estimate a more complex kinematic state of robotic agents. These results are reinforced by complementary behavioral shifts in gaze and pilot inputs. Additionally, higher-performing participants tend to engage more actively in the task by utilizing greater amounts of visual-spatial reasoning. Finally, we show that features based on EEG dynamic-network-metrics provide discriminative information that distinguishes gaze behaviors associated with the attention process.