Excessive mental workload represent a critical risk factor for workplace accidents. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive low cost electrophysiological autonomic biomarker related to emotional and cognitive regulation. Several studies report that mental overload impairs parasympathetic-mediated HRV indices (e.g. rMSSD). However, the influence of resting state HRV as a predictor of long-term mental workload impairments remains unknown. Thirty participants (22 males; 8 females) had their HRV measured (5-min period) before performing the number search task. After the task, the mental load was accessed by the NASA-TLX questionnaire. A simple linear regression model between HRV and NASA-TLX dimensions showed that resting state rMSSD is associated to physical demand (ND-2, R² = 0.143, p = 0.03) and frustration level (ND-6, R² = 0.175, p = 0.02) dimensions of mental workload. The comparison between 1 and 5-min epochs suggests that regression models remain reliable even using the ultra-short term HRV (< 1 min) recording values (R² values from 0.11 to 0.15 for ND-2 and R² values from 0.16 to 0.19 for ND-6). These results suggest that resting state HRV is associated to long-term effects of mental workload on physical and emotional demands. In addition, the ultra-short term HRV indices remains reliable to assess ND-2 and ND-6 dimensions of mental workload when compared to gold-standard time interval (> 5 min). The resting state cardiac autonomic tone assessment optimizes the physiological approach with a quick, non-invasive and low-cost assessment that can provide insights about mental load adjustments to prevent work-related accidents.

中文翻译：

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静息的心脏迷走神经音调与心理工作量的长期挫败感有关：超短期记录的可靠性。

过多的精神工作量是造成工作场所事故的关键风险因素。心率变异性（HRV）是一种与情绪和认知调节有关的非侵入性低成本电生理自主生物标志物。几项研究报告说，精神超负荷会损害副交感神经介导的HRV指数（例如rMSSD）。然而，静息状态HRV作为长期精神工作量受损的预测指标的影响仍然未知。在执行号码搜索任务之前，对30名参与者（22名男性； 8名女性）进行了HRV测量（5分钟）。任务完成后，NASA-TLX问卷访问了精神负荷。HRV与NASA-TLX尺寸之间的简单线性回归模型表明，静止状态rMSSD与身体需求相关（ND-2，R ² = 0.143，p = 0.03）和挫折感水平（ND-6，R ²  = 0.175，p = 0.02）维度。在1分钟和5分钟之间的比较表明，即使使用超短期HRV（<1分钟）记录值（ND-2和R ^2的R ²值从0.11到0.15 ），回归模型仍然可靠。ND-6的数值介于0.16到0.19之间）。这些结果表明，静止状态的HRV与心理负荷对身体和情绪需求的长期影响有关。此外，与黄金标准时间间隔（> 5分钟）相比，超短期HRV指数仍然可以可靠地评估精神负荷的ND-2和ND-6维度。静止状态的心脏自主神经张力评估通过快速，无创且低成本的评估优化了生理方法，可以提供有关精神负荷调整的见解，以防止与工作有关的事故。