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A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance

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 de...

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Autores principales: Dehais, Frédéric, Lafont, Alex, Roy, Raphaëlle, Fairclough, Stephen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7154497/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32317914
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00268
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author Dehais, Frédéric
Lafont, Alex
Roy, Raphaëlle
Fairclough, Stephen
author_facet Dehais, Frédéric
Lafont, Alex
Roy, Raphaëlle
Fairclough, Stephen
author_sort Dehais, Frédéric
collection PubMed
description 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 two-dimensional 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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spelling pubmed-71544972020-04-21 A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance Dehais, Frédéric Lafont, Alex Roy, Raphaëlle Fairclough, Stephen Front Neurosci Neuroscience 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 two-dimensional 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. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-04-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7154497/ /pubmed/32317914 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00268 Text en Copyright © 2020 Dehais, Lafont, Roy and Fairclough. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Dehais, Frédéric
Lafont, Alex
Roy, Raphaëlle
Fairclough, Stephen
A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance
title A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance
title_full A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance
title_fullStr A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance
title_full_unstemmed A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance
title_short A Neuroergonomics Approach to Mental Workload, Engagement and Human Performance
title_sort neuroergonomics approach to mental workload, engagement and human performance
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7154497/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32317914
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00268
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