Investigating the short-term cognitive abilities under local strong thermal radiation through EEG measurement

Local Strong Thermal Radiant environment is widely present in industrial buildings, resulting in reduced cognitive abilities and thermal comfort for workers who perform monitoring operations. However, the effect is difficult to quantify, especially for jobs that are near hyperthermal radiant sources. In this study, ten young male subjects were directly exposed to five different radiation panel temperatures for 60 min, i.e., 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 °C, at 0.8 m from the radiant panel. Subjects were asked to perform cognitive tasks and subjective questionnaires and monitor 16 channels of EEG signals in a chamber. Based on the assessment of the EEG characteristics, the impacts of Local Strong Thermal Radiant on cognitive abilities and EEG are investigated. The results indicated that cognitive abilities were improved while the radiant temperature was below 250 °C. As the radiation temperature increases, the normalized power of β activity and α activity increases, and the vigilance and frontal EEG asymmetry increase. When it reaches 300 °C, all these features decrease and show an inverted “U” shape. The Local Strong Thermal Radiant arouses β activity and motivation for a short period and enhances cognitive abilities. The thermal comfort scores and thermal sensation scores rise with increasing temperature. Several international standards and literature can verify the findings of this study. This study's findings provided a foundation for assessing the cognitive abilities and inducing the mental states of hyperthermal radiant environment young workers to advance effective safety management in the industrial workshop.