Event-related cerebral hemodynamics in 2-D and 3-D Visual Vigilance Tasks

Greenlee, Eric T.; Warm, Joel S.; Funke, Gregory J.; Patterson, Robert; Strang, Adam J.; Finomore, Victor; Barnes, Laura E.; Funke, Matthew E.

doi:10.1177/1541931213601360

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Analyses of event-event related CBFV revealed that CBFV increased in the seconds following a critical signal that was correctly detected, but not after a neutral signal was correctly rejected. While this represents a detection-specific response that was similar to previous reports (Greenlee et al, 2016;Shaw et al, 2013), the magnitude of that response did not decline over time and did not vary between the two conditions.…”

supporting

confidence: 86%

Neuroergonomics and Vigilance: Probing the Event-Related Cerebral Hemodynamic Response

Greenlee

Maw

2019

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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Vigilance is an operator’s ability to sustain attentional focus and remain alert for a prolonged period of time in order to monitor for and detect critical task-relevant stimuli (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982; Warm, Finomore, Vidulich, & Funke, 2015). The primary subject of vigilance research is the vigilance decrement, a temporal decline in performance that characterizes vigilance tasks. The vigilance decrement poses a threat to safety and human effectiveness in operational settings where vigilance is required, of which there are many, including aviation, healthcare, and military domains (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982). Consequently, ongoing research efforts emphasize the need to gain a better understanding of the vigilance decrement and to develop countermeasures. One compelling explanation for the vigilance decrement is resource theory, which proposes that the information processing demands of vigilance tasks are so demanding that they deplete limited neurocognitive resources necessary for vigilance at a rate that is outpaces resource replenishment (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982). As the resources necessary for vigilance declines, so too does vigilance performance. Support for resource theory has been derived from a wealth of behavioral research showing that as the demands of a vigilance task are increased, performance tends to decline more rapidly (for review, see Warm et al., 2015). Indeed, more difficult vigilance tasks appear to increase the rate at which resources are depleted, which increases the rate at which performance is impaired. Further evidence in favor of resource theory comes from neuroergonomic studies that facilitate more direct measurement of neural resource utilization by employing neurophysiological measurements. Transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) is one such measure. TCD provides a measure of cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV), which is a metabolic index of cortical activity and neural resource utilization (Toole, 1984; Tripp & Warm, 2007; Warm, Tripp, Matthews & Helton, 2012). Vigilance research using the TCD has shown that CBFV tends to decline in parallel with vigilance performance (Warm & Parasuraman, 2007; Warm et al. 2012). Further, CBFV is greater, initially, when vigilance task demands are increased, but increases in task demands also lead to a more precipitous decline in CBFV – effects that align with a resource theory account (Warm & Parasuraman, 2007; Warm et al. 2012). Those findings, like most research using the TCD in vigilance, involved examination of CBFV that has been averaged across large (e.g., 10-min) periods of time. A recently developed alternative to that global method of CBFV analysis, is event-related CBFV analysis, which involves a temporally nuanced examination of the CBFV response in the seconds following certain types of stimulus presentations and performance outcomes (e.g., correct detections, correct rejections). A comparatively small amount of research has been done on event-related changes in cerebral blood flow velocity. The initial investigation was conducted by Shaw and colleagues (2013) who demonstrated that CBFV increases immediately after an individual detects a critical signal and that this CBFV increase is absent when an individual correctly rejects a neutral (non-target) stimulus. They also found that the magnitude of that detection-specific response declined over time, similar to global CBFV and the vigilance decrement. These findings led Shaw and colleagues (2013) to suggest that event-related CBFV is sensitive to the activity and depletion of detection-specific resources that are involved in correctly detecting a critical signal. In a related study, Greenlee and colleagues (2016) replicated the detection-specific CBFV response using event-related analyses. They also showed that event-related CBFV may be more sensitive than global CBFV to the demands of vigilance tasks. The current study was conducted to provide further examination of that possibility. Specifically, we aimed to assess the sensitivity of event-related CBFV and global CBFV to differences in signal probability, a well-studied variable known to influence attentional demands in vigilance tasks (Warm et al., 2015). We expected resource demands to be greater in a low signal probability condition than in a high signal probability condition. Consequently, we predicted that the magnitude of the detection-specific response, the magnitude of global CBFV, and the severity of the decline in both measures would be greatest in the relatively demanding, low signal probability condition. Twenty-four undergraduate students (22 Women, 2 Men) were assigned at random to either a low critical signal probability condition (3.3%) or a high critical signal probability condition (6.6%). All participants completed a 40-minute computerized vigilance task adapted from Greenlee and colleagues (2015). Participants were tasked with monitoring a computerized gauge which was updated 30 times per minute, and they were instructed to respond when the gauge needle deviated from a vertical position (neutral signal) to a rotated position (critical signal). Analysis of performance data indicated that correct detection rates declined significantly over the course of the vigil, but there was no performance difference between high and low signal probability conditions. Global CBFV mirrored these performance data with a significant decline in global CBFV, but no difference between conditions. Analyses of event-event related CBFV revealed that CBFV increased in the seconds following a critical signal that was correctly detected, but not after a neutral signal was correctly rejected. While this represents a detection-specific response that was similar to previous reports (Greenlee et al., 2016; Shaw et al., 2013), the magnitude of that response did not decline over time and did not vary between the two conditions. In sum, the present results do indicate that event-related and global CBFV may be differentially sensitive to the demands of vigilance, but not in the manner reported previously. Given that global CBFV and performance declined in a similar fashion and event-related CBFV did not decline, it appears that global CBFV may have been more sensitive to resource utilization and depletion within the current vigilance task. This finding contrasts with those of Greenlee and colleagues (2016), who found evidence that event-related analyses may be more sensitive. More research will be required to determine the source of this discrepancy between studies and to more completely evaluate the relative value of global and event-related analyses of CBFV during vigilance tasks.

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supporting

confidence: 86%

Neuroergonomics and Vigilance: Probing the Event-Related Cerebral Hemodynamic Response

Greenlee

Maw

2019

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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“…This is a concern worth investigating because vigilance has been identified as an area where physiological state assessment may be an effective method of identifying the causes and potential cures of suboptimal vigilance performance (for review, see Warm & Parasuraman, 2007). TCD is a physiological measure that may be especially well suited to laboratory research and real-time assessment of user vigilance (e.g., Greenlee et al, 2015, Greenlee, Warm et al, 2016Helton et al, 2010;Klein et al, 2019;Warm & Parasuraman, 2007;Shaw et al, 2009Shaw et al, , 2019Shaw, Funke et al, 2013;Shaw, Satterfield, et al, 2013;Warm et al, 2012). TCD can be used to monitor hemodynamic activity within the brain, which has been closely linked to level of vigilance performance.…”

Section: Intrusiveness Of Transcranial Doppler Sonography In Vigilance Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Physiobehavioral Monitoring Nonintrusive? An Examination of Transcranial Doppler Sonography in a Vigilance Task

2020

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Objective The current study was designed to determine whether continuous, physiobehavioral monitoring via transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) has negative effects on human performance or user state in a vigilance task. Background Physiobehavioral measures have been identified as a promising method of user state assessment, in part because they are thought to be relatively nonintrusive. The notion that physiobehavioral measures are nonintrusive should not be taken for granted and needs to be tested empirically. It is possible that, even though physiobehavioral measures do not require input from a user, they may still hinder performance by causing discomfort, distraction, or interfering with physical activities required for task performance. Method The current study employed TCD, a common method of monitoring user vigilance. Participants completed a 40-min vigilance task. During the task, 50% wore TCD apparatus, while 50% did not. Intrusiveness was measured in terms of vigilance performance as well as workload, stress, and simulator sickness. Results Analyses revealed results that mirrored prototypical vigilance findings: performance declined over time, workload was high, distress and reported simulator sickness symptomology increased during the task, while engagement decreased. The presence or absence of TCD monitoring had no direct or interactive effects on performance or user state. Conclusion TCD monitoring of user vigilance appears to be nonintrusive. Application Findings support the recommendation that TCD should be used in research and operational settings where user vigilance is of paramount importance. More broadly, when developing and fielding physiobehavioral state measurement systems, intrusiveness should be considered and evaluated.

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“…This detection-related response may represent relatively specific attentional resource allocation needed for critical signal processing, and there is evidence that the magnitude of the detection-related response is sensitive to the vigilance decrement (Shaw et al, 2013). There is also some evidence that the detection-related response is more sensitive to task-demand factors than global CBFV (Greenlee et al, 2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…These findings have been interpreted as evidence that vigilance tasks are demanding, and that the vigilance decrement is caused by depletion of cortical resources (Warm & Parasuraman, 2008). The second analytical method is relatively novel and has been used to study vigilance only a few times; it involves event-related analysis of CBFV in the seconds surrounding a stimulus presentation (Greenlee et al, 2016; Greenlee & Maw, 2019; Shaw et al, 2013). Studies using the event-related analysis have revealed that CBFV increases momentarily following the onset of a critical signal that is detected.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Event-Related Cerebral Hemodynamic Assessment of Vigilance: Evidence in Favor of a More Temporally Precise Analysis

Azubike,

Greenlee

2023

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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Transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) is a neuroergonomic measure used in research on vigilance tasks. The current study focused on eventrelated analysis of TCD data, a relatively novel analytical approach that has previously been used to reveal that brain activity increases briefly when an individual detects a critical, target stimulus. Although research suggests that this detection-related response is sensitive to fatigue and demand effects associated with vigilance, future use and interpretation of event-related TCD analyses is complicated by interstudy variability in the time course and magnitude of the detection-related response. One possibility is that previous methods may have been too temporally coarse (4-second averages), so the current study reanalyzed data from one previous event-related study – this time using narrower 2-second averages. Results indicated that 2-second averages provided more precise depiction of the detection-related response than 4-second averages. We recommend use of 2-second averages for future eventrelated CBFV research.

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Event-related cerebral hemodynamics in 2-D and 3-D Visual Vigilance Tasks

Cited by 4 publications

References 17 publications

Neuroergonomics and Vigilance: Probing the Event-Related Cerebral Hemodynamic Response

Neuroergonomics and Vigilance: Probing the Event-Related Cerebral Hemodynamic Response

Is Physiobehavioral Monitoring Nonintrusive? An Examination of Transcranial Doppler Sonography in a Vigilance Task

Event-Related Cerebral Hemodynamic Assessment of Vigilance: Evidence in Favor of a More Temporally Precise Analysis

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