Increased prefrontal cortex connectivity during cognitive challenge assessed by fNIRS imaging

Racz, Frigyes Samuel; Mukli, Péter; Nagy, Zoltán Zsolt; Eke, András

doi:10.1364/boe.8.003842

Cited by 60 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…The PFC serves a control function during routine cognitive operations, such as: action selection, retrieval/updating in working memory, monitoring and inhibition (Ramnani and Owen, 2004;Ridderinkhof et al, 2004). It is often activated during high levels of cognitive demand (Ayaz et al, 2012;Herff et al, 2014;Racz et al, 2017;Gateau et al, 2018;Fairclough et al, 2019) and dysfunction of this structure is known to degrade performance (Sandson and Albert, 1984;Dolcos and McCarthy, 2006). However, the PFC is complex and its function is subject to the quadratic influence of neuromodulation via the influence of noradrenaline and dopamine (Arnsten, 2009;Arnsten et al, 2012).…”

Section: The Non-linear Effects Of Neuromodulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance

et al. 2020

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The assessment and prediction of cognitive performance is a key issue for any discipline concerned with human operators in the context of safety-critical behavior. Most of the research has focused on the measurement of mental workload but this construct remains difficult to operationalize despite decades of research on the topic. Recent advances in Neuroergonomics have expanded our understanding of neurocognitive processes across different operational domains. We provide a framework to disentangle those neural mechanisms that underpin the relationship between task demand, arousal, mental workload and human performance. This approach advocates targeting those specific mental states that precede a reduction of performance efficacy. A number of undesirable neurocognitive states (mind wandering, effort withdrawal, perseveration, inattentional phenomena) are identified and mapped within a twodimensional conceptual space encompassing task engagement and arousal. We argue that monitoring the prefrontal cortex and its deactivation can index a generic shift from a nominal operational state to an impaired one where performance is likely to degrade. Neurophysiological, physiological and behavioral markers that specifically account for these states are identified. We then propose a typology of neuroadaptive countermeasures to mitigate these undesirable mental states.

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Section: The Non-linear Effects Of Neuromodulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance

et al. 2020

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“…Typically, DFC studies are conducted using fMRI, which is not appropriate for protocols requiring supine positions and/or non-elicited task execution. Recent studies have demonstrated that fNIRS is well positioned in such scenarios [47][48][49] . We foresee that implementing such approaches in the context of bimanual skill assessment can lead to refined skill level assessment metrics as well as potentially provide predictive models of skill acquisition.…”

Section: Submission Date: February 6thmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing bimanual motor skills with optical neuroimaging

Nemani

Yücel

Krüger

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Measuring motor skill proficiency is critical for the certification of highly-skilled individuals in numerous fields. However, conventional measures use subjective metrics that often cannot distinguish between expertise levels. Here, we present an advanced optical neuroimaging methodology that can objectively and successfully classify subjects with different expertise levels associated with bimanual motor dexterity. The methodology was tested by assessing laparoscopic surgery skills within the framework of the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery program, which is a pre-requisite for certification in general surgery. We demonstrate that optical-based metrics outperformed current metrics for surgical certification in classifying subjects with varying surgical expertise. Moreover, we report that optical neuroimaging allows for the successful classification of subjects during the acquisition of such skills.Motor skills that involve bimanual motor coordination are essential in performing numerous tasks ranging from simple daily activities to complex motor actions performed by highly skilled individuals. Hence, metrics to assess motor task performance are critical in numerous fields including neuropathology and neurological recovery, surgical training and certification, and athletic performance [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] . In the vast majority of fields, however, current metrics are human-administered, subjective, and require significant personnel resources and time. Thus, there is critical need for more automated, analytical, and objective evaluation methods 4,[8][9][10][11] . From a neuroscience perspective, bimanual task assessment provides insights into motor skill expertise, motor dysfunctions, interconnectivity between brain regions, and higher cognitive and executive functions, such as motor perception, motor action, and task multitasking 7,12 . Therefore, incorporating the underlying neurological responses in bimanual motor skill assessment is a logical step towards providing robust, objective metrics, which ultimately may lead to greatly improving our understanding of motor skill processes and facilitating bimanual-based task certification.Among all non-invasive functional brain imaging techniques, functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) offers the unique ability to monitor and quantify fast functional brain activations over numerous cortical areas without constraining and interfering with bimanual task execution. Hence, fNIRS is a promising neuroimaging modality to study cortical brain activations but to date, only a very limited number of studies have been reported in regards to assessing fine surgical motor skills 13 . These exploratory studies have reported differentiation in functional cortical activations between groups with varying surgical motor skills [13][14][15][16][17] . However, they suffer from recognized limitations 13 such as such as the lack of signal specificity between scalp and cortical hemodynamics 18,19 , the lack of multivariate statistical approaches that leverage changes in function...

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“…39 Cui et al 32 also reported that the CBSI transformation reduced spikes in the data, modulated nonspike noise to improve signal quality (see Ref. 40 for supporting evidence), and improved spatial specificity of the signals. According to one recent paper, 41 there are five causes of positive association between HbO and HHb in the fNIRS signal, these are: (i) motion and head movement, (ii) cross-talk between the chromophores, (iii) differences in spatial responses due to the density of capillaries compared with large blood vessels, (iv) systemic effects from extracerebral sources, and (v) effects related to oxygenation and hemodynamic effects associated with muscle activation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

FNIRS activity in the prefrontal cortex and motivational intensity: impact of working memory load, financial reward, and correlation-based signal improvement

2018

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Previous research has demonstrated changes in neurovascular activation of the prefrontal cortex to increased working memory load. The primary purpose of the current paper was to investigate overload of working memory capacity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) within the framework of motivational intensity theory. A secondary goal was to explore the influence of the correlation-based signal improvement (CBSI) as a method for correcting the influence of systemic variables. In study one, 30 participants (15 female, mean age = 21.09 years, s.d. = 2.9 years) performed a verbal version of the -back working memory task under four levels of demand (easy, hard, very hard, and impossible). In contrast to the raw data, CBSI-transformed fNIRS data indicated that neurovascular coupling was highest at hard demand when the task was challenging but success was possible. The second study ( ; 15 female, mean age = 22.4 years, s.d. = 5.3) replicated the working memory manipulation with the addition of low versus high levels of financial reward. Analyses of CBSI-transformed levels of oxygenated (HbO) and deoxygenated (HHb) hemoglobin replicated the first study at right lateral regions of the prefrontal cortex (BA46). HHb_CBSI data were significantly reduced at impossible demand for participants receiving the higher level of financial reward. The study is the first to support predictions from the motivational intensity model using neurovascular data. In addition, the application of CBSI to fNIRS data was found to improve the sensitivity of HbO and Hbb to the independent variables.

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Increased prefrontal cortex connectivity during cognitive challenge assessed by fNIRS imaging

Cited by 60 publications

References 76 publications

A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance

A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance

Assessing bimanual motor skills with optical neuroimaging

FNIRS activity in the prefrontal cortex and motivational intensity: impact of working memory load, financial reward, and correlation-based signal improvement

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