Cargando…

Visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation

BACKGROUND: During a simulated coordinated turn in a gondola centrifuge, experienced pilots show a substantial inter-individual variability in visual measures of perceived roll tilt. Because of the centrifuge’s small radius, the pattern of stimuli to the semicircular canals during acceleration of th...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tribukait, Arne, Bergsten, Eddie, Brink, Andreas, Eiken, Ola
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: IOS Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9986699/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36442173
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/VES-220016
_version_ 1784901226643587072
author Tribukait, Arne
Bergsten, Eddie
Brink, Andreas
Eiken, Ola
author_facet Tribukait, Arne
Bergsten, Eddie
Brink, Andreas
Eiken, Ola
author_sort Tribukait, Arne
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: During a simulated coordinated turn in a gondola centrifuge, experienced pilots show a substantial inter-individual variability in visual measures of perceived roll tilt. Because of the centrifuge’s small radius, the pattern of stimuli to the semicircular canals during acceleration of the centrifuge differs in certain respects from that of an aircraft entering a turn. OBJECTIVE: To explore whether these differences may be of significance for the pilot’s roll- plane orientation and whether individual characteristics revealed in the centrifuge correspond to those during real flight. METHOD: 8 fixed-wing air-force pilots were tested in a centrifuge and a high-performance aircraft. The centrifuge was accelerated to 2 G (gondola inclination 60°) within 10 s. The duration at 2 G was 6 minutes. Similar profiles were created in the aircraft. The subjective visual horizontal (SVH) was measured using an adjustable luminous line in darkness. Each pilot was tested on three occasions: centrifuge (2 runs), aircraft (2 turns), centrifuge (2 runs). For each 2-G exposure, initial and final SVH values were established via curve fitting. RESULT: Despite a large inter-individual variability (±SD), group means were similar in the aircraft (initial: 43.0±20.6°; final: 22.5±14.8°) and centrifuge (initial: 40.6±17.0°; final: 20.5±16.0°). Further, individual peculiarities in response patterns were similar in the two conditions. For both the initial and final SVH tilt there was a high correlation between centrifuge and aircraft. CONCLUSION: The correspondence between conditions suggests that the centrifuge is an adequate means for demonstrating the fundamental motion pattern of coordinated flight and also for establishing the individual pilot’s ability to perceive an aircraft’s roll attitude. Findings are discussed in connection with vestibular learning and the possibility of underlying differences between pilots in the keenness for semicircular canal and somatosensory cues.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9986699
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher IOS Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-99866992023-03-07 Visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation Tribukait, Arne Bergsten, Eddie Brink, Andreas Eiken, Ola J Vestib Res Research Article BACKGROUND: During a simulated coordinated turn in a gondola centrifuge, experienced pilots show a substantial inter-individual variability in visual measures of perceived roll tilt. Because of the centrifuge’s small radius, the pattern of stimuli to the semicircular canals during acceleration of the centrifuge differs in certain respects from that of an aircraft entering a turn. OBJECTIVE: To explore whether these differences may be of significance for the pilot’s roll- plane orientation and whether individual characteristics revealed in the centrifuge correspond to those during real flight. METHOD: 8 fixed-wing air-force pilots were tested in a centrifuge and a high-performance aircraft. The centrifuge was accelerated to 2 G (gondola inclination 60°) within 10 s. The duration at 2 G was 6 minutes. Similar profiles were created in the aircraft. The subjective visual horizontal (SVH) was measured using an adjustable luminous line in darkness. Each pilot was tested on three occasions: centrifuge (2 runs), aircraft (2 turns), centrifuge (2 runs). For each 2-G exposure, initial and final SVH values were established via curve fitting. RESULT: Despite a large inter-individual variability (±SD), group means were similar in the aircraft (initial: 43.0±20.6°; final: 22.5±14.8°) and centrifuge (initial: 40.6±17.0°; final: 20.5±16.0°). Further, individual peculiarities in response patterns were similar in the two conditions. For both the initial and final SVH tilt there was a high correlation between centrifuge and aircraft. CONCLUSION: The correspondence between conditions suggests that the centrifuge is an adequate means for demonstrating the fundamental motion pattern of coordinated flight and also for establishing the individual pilot’s ability to perceive an aircraft’s roll attitude. Findings are discussed in connection with vestibular learning and the possibility of underlying differences between pilots in the keenness for semicircular canal and somatosensory cues. IOS Press 2023-02-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9986699/ /pubmed/36442173 http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/VES-220016 Text en © 2023 – The authors. Published by IOS Press https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research Article
Tribukait, Arne
Bergsten, Eddie
Brink, Andreas
Eiken, Ola
Visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation
title Visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation
title_full Visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation
title_fullStr Visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation
title_full_unstemmed Visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation
title_short Visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation
title_sort visual measures of perceived roll tilt in pilots during coordinated flight and gondola centrifugation
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9986699/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36442173
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/VES-220016
work_keys_str_mv AT tribukaitarne visualmeasuresofperceivedrolltiltinpilotsduringcoordinatedflightandgondolacentrifugation
AT bergsteneddie visualmeasuresofperceivedrolltiltinpilotsduringcoordinatedflightandgondolacentrifugation
AT brinkandreas visualmeasuresofperceivedrolltiltinpilotsduringcoordinatedflightandgondolacentrifugation
AT eikenola visualmeasuresofperceivedrolltiltinpilotsduringcoordinatedflightandgondolacentrifugation