A simultaneous EEG-fNIRS dataset for investigating working memory load

To investigate changes in frontoparietal activity induced by different WML, we simultaneously measured EEG and fNIRS data during a three-level digit sternberg task. Given that fronto-parietal network has a crucial function in WM, EEG electrodes, fNIRS sources, and detectors were mainly located on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC). Raw EEG was recorded using the Neuroscan EEG acquisition system  (Neuroscan, El Paso, TX, USA). The sampling rate was set to 1,000 Hz. fNIRS data was recorded via the NIRScout system (NIRScout XP, Shenzhen Yingchi Technology Co., Ltd, Shenzhen, China), using light with wavelengths of 760 and 850 nm. The sampling rate was set to 20.7 Hz. Eight sources and eight detectors were located on DLPFC (F1, F2, Fz, F3, F4, FC1, FCz, FC2) and PPC (P1, P2, P3, P4, Pz, CP1, CP2, CPz). An adjacent source-detector pair was configured as a fNIRS channel, resulting in a total of 18 channels. Given that the change in WML is more sensitive for elderly adults, thirty healthy elderly adults with normal or corrected-to-normal vision were recruited for this study.