INVESTIGATION OF UPPER LIMB MUSCLE AND MENTAL ACTIVITIES ON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND WORKERS FOR REPETITIVE LOAD-TASKS
Abstract
A study was conducted to investigate the effect of load on upper limb muscles and mental activities in light repetitive task. The task was conducted at two levels of load (Low and high) on university students and industrial workers. Surface electromyography (EMG) was used to measure upper limb muscle activities of thirty subjects. The results found that the EMG RMS of all muscles increases as time increases that reflect muscle fatigue. Electroencephalography (EEG) was simultaneously recorded with EMG to record mental activities. Mental activities increases as time increase, that indicates mental fatigue was occurred while performing the task. Students and workers have similar muscle activities while doing the tasks, except for the activities of the left brachioradialis muscle on the high load task. It indicates that in this task, the right brachioradialis muscle of the students consumes more energy to perform the task than the students’ muscle. The results on mental activities show that there was no difference of mental activities between students and workers (p>0.05), except on the F3-F4 channels for the low load task (p=0.043). The results indicate that the intentional and motivational of workers were higher than students while doing the low load task.
Keywords: Upper limb muscle; mental activity; load; light repetitive task
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