Cognitive Factors Mediate the Relation Between Age and Flight Path 					Maintenance in General Aviation

Benthem, Kathleen Van; Herdman, Chris M.

doi:10.1027/2192-0923/a000102

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Furthermore, it is well accepted that the frontal lobes are generally involved when tasks are complex, have novel demands or require considerable attention 20 . A good example of such a complex activity is piloting, as it takes place in a rapidly changing and uncertain environment, and has been shown to rely heavily on multiple prefrontal cortex-dependent higher order executive functions such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, or planning 21 – 23 . Not surprisingly, the few studies with fNIRS involving simulated 24 , 25 and real piloting scenarios 26 converge to show increased oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex in response to cognitive demand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There were three main hypotheses: 1) based on previous neuroimaging studies, we hypothesised that increasing difficulty during aircraft piloting and executive function tests (see material and methods section for details on the difficulty manipulation) would be both associated with increased HbO2 and decreased HHb, primarily in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; 2) according to the neural efficiency hypothesis that suggests that mental effort and output performance are not linearly associated, we hypothesised that individual prefrontal cortex activation should not be correlated with task performance; 3) finally, since the two aforementioned experimental settings recruit common cognitive functions (aircraft piloting involves executive functions such as working memory, cognitive flexibility or planning 21 , 22 ), we hypothesised that the neural efficiency index measured during the executive functions tests may correlate with the one for the piloting scenario.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS

Causse

Chua

Peysakhovich

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

170

107

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An improved understanding of how the brain allocates mental resources as a function of task difficulty is critical for enhancing human performance. Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a field-deployable optical brain monitoring technology that provides a direct measure of cerebral blood flow in response to cognitive activity. We found that fNIRS was sensitive to variations in task difficulty in both real-life (flight simulator) and laboratory settings (tests measuring executive functions), showing increased concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) and decreased concentration of deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb) in the prefrontal cortex as the tasks became more complex. Intensity of prefrontal activation (HbO2 concentration) was not clearly correlated to task performance. Rather, activation intensity shed insight on the level of mental effort, i.e., how hard an individual was working to accomplish a task. When combined with performance, fNIRS provided an estimate of the participants’ neural efficiency, and this efficiency was consistent across levels of difficulty of the same task. Overall, our data support the suitability of fNIRS to assess the mental effort related to human operations and represents a promising tool for the measurement of neural efficiency in other contexts such as training programs or the clinical setting.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS

Causse

Chua

Peysakhovich

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

170

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Among others, pilots must control the aircraft, apply numerous procedures and rules, pay a sustained attention to aircraft spatial position, process continuously ongoing events to maintain an up-to-date situation awareness 25,26 , interpret numerous instruments, plan actions and decisions over time, adapt to changing contexts etc. The relationship between age and piloting performance has been found to be mediated by a cluster of cognitive factors, among which WM plays an important role 27,28 . WM has been shown to correlate with flying performance in several other studies e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To this end, cognitive performance and prefrontal brain activity were examined in private pilots from three different age groups (young, middle-aged, older) owning variable flight experience. Since piloting likely requires executive functions 27,28 , participants were tested on two executive tests from the CANTAB battery 6 assessing visuospatial WM, and planning/reasoning. Visuospatial working memory was evaluated with the Spatial Working Memory (SWM) task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences of age, mental workload, and flight experience on cognitive performance and prefrontal activity in private pilots: a fNIRS study

Causse

Chua

Rémy

2019

Sci Rep

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The effects of aging on cognitive performance must be better understood, especially to protect older individuals who are engaged in risky activities (e.g. aviation). Current literature on executive functions suggests that brain compensatory mechanisms may counter cognitive deterioration due to aging, at least up to certain task load levels. The present study assesses this hypothesis in private pilots engaged in two executive tasks from the standardized CANTAB battery, namely Spatial Working Memory (SWM) and One Touch Stockings of Cambridge (OTS). Sixty-one pilots from three age groups (young, middle-aged, older) performed these two tasks from low to very high difficulty levels, beyond those reported in previous aging studies. A fNIRS headband measured changes in oxyhemoglobin (HbO2) in the prefrontal cortex. Results confirmed an overall effect of the difficulty level in the three age groups, with a decline in task performance and an increase in prefrontal HbO2 signal. Performance of older relative to younger pilots was impaired in both tasks, with the greatest impairment observed for the highest-load Spatial Working Memory task. Consistent with this behavioral deficit in older pilots, a plateau of prefrontal activity was observed at this highest-load level, suggesting that a ceiling in neural resources was reached. When behavioral performance was either equivalent between age groups or only slightly impaired in the older group, there were not any age-related differences in prefrontal activity. Finally, older pilots with extensive flying experience tend to show better preserved spatial working memory performance when compared to mildly-experienced of the same age group. The present findings are discussed in the frames of HAROLD and CRUNCH theoretical models of cognitive and neural aging, evoking the possibility that piloting expertise may contribute to preserve executive functions throughout adulthood.

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“…Flight path deviations (FPDs) are a key indicator of flying performance (Causse, Dehais, Arexis, & Pastor, 2011;Leirer, Yesavage, & Morrow, 1989;Van Benthem & Herdman, 2016). Some deviations from the ideal trajectory may be expected, however to justify using VR as a viable alternative to the traditional flight training approach, the FPDs in a full-flight simulator and VR flying environment should be comparable.…”

Section: Motivation For the Present Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Virtual Reality Flight Training as a Viable Alternative to Traditional Simulator Flight Training

Lawrynczyk¹

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Upwards of 60% of preventable aviation accidents are due to human error, suggesting that sufficient training is vital for improved flight safety. The objective of the present work was to inform the use of virtual reality technology as a flight simulation method that supports training of high-risk scenarios and has major cost saving potential compared to traditional flight simulators.Participants flew three predefined circuits in a traditional flight simulator graphics condition (Broad Angle Display System, (BADS)), and conducted the same flight path and tasks using a VR graphics environment. The exploratory hypotheses in this research are that there would be no differences in the user experience, cognitive workload, and performance, between the two graphics conditions. User experience was gathered by a questionnaire probing motion sickness and other VR usability metrics. Cognitive load was gathered from a subjective rating in a questionnaire, derived from peripheral detection task, and by continuously measuring participant's physiological indices, including heart rate and galvanic skin response. Performance was obtained from flight path and airspeed deviations, and from flying precision. USER EXPERIENCE.There were no differences in physiological symptoms (i.e., queasiness, dizziness, or disorientation) after the first flying condition, however queasiness ratings appeared greater for participants who flew in the VR graphics condition on second exposure. COGNITIVE LOAD. The average subjective mental workload rating, heart rate, and galvanic skin response were statistically higher in the VR graphics condition than in the BADS. The remaining cognitive load metrics did not have any significant differences between the two graphics conditions. PERFORMANCE. The average airspeed root-meansquared error (RMSE) was statistically greater (worse) in the BADS graphics condition than in the VR. There were no differences in the altitude or heading RMSE, or flying precision between the two graphics conditions. The groups experiencing queasiness and dizziness symptoms in VR on first exposure both had a greater heading RMSE in VR. There were no significant effects from queasiness, dizziness, or disorientation on performance measures in the BADS group.

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Cognitive Factors Mediate the Relation Between Age and Flight Path Maintenance in General Aviation

Cited by 17 publications

References 22 publications

Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS

Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS

Influences of age, mental workload, and flight experience on cognitive performance and prefrontal activity in private pilots: a fNIRS study

Exploring Virtual Reality Flight Training as a Viable Alternative to Traditional Simulator Flight Training

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