RECENT PRESENTATIONS

Gevins, A., Smith, M.E., McEvoy, L.K. (2001). Towards Monitoring Cognitive Brain Function During Flight Missions. NASA Space Biomedical Investigators' Workshop. January, League City, TX.

ABSTRACT

Personnel who are experiencing a transient cognitive impairment (because of fatigue or sleep loss, illness or medication, etc.) may be error prone in situations that tax the limits of their reduced mental capacity. Furthermore, in complex work environments, any cognitive overload imposed by high task demands can lead to performance errors. Such conditions have frequently been implicated in major aviation and industrial accidents. Our NASA sponsored work has focused on research aimed at the development of sensitive and practical measures of the effect of such environmental stressors on human cognitive brain function. Sensitive indices of an individual's arousal level and ability to focus and sustain attention can be derived from the electroencephalogram (EEG). We have succeeded in demonstrating the feasibility of using such measures to detect changes in cognitive status associated with sleep deprivation, alcohol consumption and antihistamines. Preliminary studies provided initial evidence that multivariate combinations of task-related EEG variables can be used to detect transient cognitive impairment due to operational fatigue and other causes (Gevins & Smith, 1999, Aviat., Space, and Environmental Medicine). We have also demonstrated that such measures can be used to identify periods of high cognitive load during performance of difficult tasks (Gevins et al., 1998, Human Factors). Our NASA-sponsored work has served to further verify and extend these results. This research program is complemented by our engineering efforts aimed at developing an enabling technology that would permit convenient assessment of cognitive status in flight crewmembers. These efforts include the development of advanced methods for recording and analyzing brain signals including rapid application physiological sensors, miniaturized portable data acquisition systems, and sophisticated digital signal processing algorithms. Rapid progress being made in each of these areas suggests that it will soon be possible to conveniently monitor cognitive brain function during long duration space flight missions.