The amount of human brain work plays a critical role in many complex command and control systems, and reflects the amount of effort the brain puts into meeting the demands of the task.Experienced air traffic controllers keep their performance above a certain level by increasing their effort or adjusting their strategies (Matthews, 2000). However, as task difficulty increases it may lead to a breakdown in performance and ultimately to catastrophic accidents and losses. Therefore, it is particularly important to have an objective measurement of the amount of mental effort that air traffic controllers put in, as an accurate assessment can help to prevent operational errors on the part of air traffic controllers (Parasuraman & Wilson, 2008).
Near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) provides an effective method and means to measure the brain workload of air traffic controllers in real environments due to its safety, portability, and user-friendliness. In addition, the high temporal and spatial resolution of fNIRS greatly improves the reliability of mental workload assessment (Plichta et al., 2007) and serves as one of the measures of mental workload in neuro-ergonomic research. Therefore, some researchers have utilized the fNIRS technique to measure the hemodynamic responses of air traffic controllers' brains during the execution of complex ATC tasks (Ayaz et al., 2012).
Part.2
Method
1,Tested: Twenty-four air traffic controllers, ranging in age from 26-55 years old and certified to practice, with a range of 3-30 years of service. All participants were provided with a written informed consent form before the study officially began. 2. Experimental design: For the ACT task, professional ATC controllers control and communicate with pilots in an ATC simulator environment with high-resolution radar oscilloscopes, trackballs, and operator keyboards (e.g., Fig. 1), with communication modes including VoiceComm and DataComm, and with task difficulty varying depending on the number of airplanes in each sector, including 6, 12, or 18 airplanes ( As shown in Fig. 2), resulting in a 2 (communication: data-based, voice-based) × 3 (task difficulty: 6, 12, 18 airplanes) experimental design.
Figure 1
Figure 2
3. fNIRS scheduling: The near-infrared photopoles are arranged in prefrontal regions that are closely related to attention and executive control functions, forming a total of 16 channels(as in figure 3), and continuous monitoring of cerebral blood oxygenation changes during rest and during the mission.
Figure 3
Part.3
Results
1,Subjective reporting results: The A repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between the number of aircraft and the type of communication, as well as a significant main effect for each, and a Tukey post hoc test for task difficulty showed that the subjective workload assessment rating was significantly higher in the 18-aircraft condition than in the 6- and 12-aircraft conditions(as in Figure 4).
Figure 4
2,fNIRS results: The
Statistical tests of participants' mean change in oxygenation over the duration of the task were also performed using repeated measures ANOVA. Results indicated that the significant measurement location was in channel 8 (medial PFC/frontal pole cortex), with a significant main effect of task difficulty versus communication type. A Tukey post hoc test for task difficulty indicated a greater increase in oxyhemoglobin concentration in the 18-aircraft condition relative to the 6-aircraft(as in Figure 5).
Figure 5
Part.4
talk over
The main goal of this study was to test whether it is possible to use the fNIRS approach to assess brain workload in complex cognitive tasks (ATC), where the tasks involved simulate very closely the work of air traffic controllers. It was found that the mean oxygenation level in the medial PFC (frontal pole cortex) of air traffic controllers monotonically increased with task difficulty, which corroborated with the subjective assessment results. Furthermore, for different task difficulties, the VoiceComm condition resulted in higher changes in oxygenated hemoglobin levels than DataComm, suggesting that DataComm requires fewer cognitive resources for the same cognitive workload condition. This is also consistent with self-reported results and previous research (Willems et al., 2006).
Part.5
Conclusion
In summary, fNIRS can be used to measure hemodynamic changes in the prefrontal cortex and to provide a quantitative measure of the brain workload of air traffic controllers by measuring the mean blood oxygen changes in the medial PFC (frontal pole cortex).The results further suggest that text-based communication (DataComm) requires less brain activation than traditional voice-based communication (VoiceComm) systems.
Part.6
References
1.Matthews, G. (2000). Human performance: Cognition, stress, and individual differences. Psychology Press.https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315812809 2.Parasuraman, R., & Wilson, G. F. (2008). Putting the brain to work: Neuroergonomics past, present, and future. Human factors, 50(3), 468-474.doi: 10.1518/001872008X288349 3.Plichta, M. M., Herrmann, M. J., Baehne, C. G., Ehlis, A. C., Richter, M. M., Pauli, P., & Fallgatter, A. J. (2007). Event-related functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) based on craniocerebral correlations: reproducibility of activation? Human Brain Mapping, 28(8), 733-741.doi: 10.1002/hbm.20303 4.Ayaz, H., Shewokis, P. A., Bunce, S., Izzetoglu, K., Willems, B., & Onaral, B. (2012). Optical brain monitoring for operator training and mental workload assessment. NeuroImage, 59(1), 36-47.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.06.023 5.Willems, B., Hah, S., & Phillips, R. (2006). The effect of data link on en route controller workload. FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center.
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