Astolfi L, Toppi J, Borghini G, Vecchiato G, He E J, Roy A, Cincotti F, Salinari S, Mattia D, He B, Babiloni F
Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering, Univ. of Rome "Sapienza", Rome, Italy.
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2012;2012:4752-5. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2012.6347029.
Controlling an aircraft during a flight is a compelling condition, which requires a strict and well coded interaction between the crew. The interaction level between the Captain and the First Officer changes during the flight, ranging from a maximum (during takeoff and landing, as well as in case of a failure of the instrumentation or other emergency situations) to a minimum during quiet mid-flight. In this study, our aim is to investigate the neural correlates of different kinds and levels of interaction between couples of professional crew members by means of the innovative technique called brain hyperscanning, i.e. the simultaneous recording of the hemodynamic or neuroelectrical activity of different human subjects involved in interaction tasks. This approach allows the observation and modeling of the neural signature specifically dependent on the interaction between subjects, and, even more interestingly, of the functional links existing between the brain activities of the subjects interacting together. In this EEG hyperscanning study, different phases of a flight were reproduced in a professional flight simulator, which allowed, on one side, to reproduce the ecological setting of a real flight, and, on the other, to keep under control the different levels of interaction induced in the crew by means of systematic and simulated failures of the aircraft instrumentation. Results of the procedure of linear inverse estimation, together with functional hyperconnectivity estimated by means of Partial Directed Coherence, showed a dense network of connections between the activity in the two brains in the takeoff and landing phases, when the cooperation between the crew is maximal, while conversely no significant links were shown during the phases in which the activity of the two pilots was independent.
飞行过程中操控飞机是一种强制性情形，这需要机组人员之间进行严格且编码完善的互动。机长和副驾驶之间的互动程度在飞行过程中会发生变化，从最高程度（在起飞和降落时，以及仪表出现故障或其他紧急情况时）到飞行平稳阶段的最低程度。在本研究中，我们的目标是通过一种名为脑超扫描的创新技术，研究专业机组人员之间不同类型和程度互动的神经关联，即同时记录参与互动任务的不同人类受试者的血液动力学或神经电活动。这种方法能够观察和建模特定依赖于受试者之间互动的神经特征，更有趣的是，还能观察和建模一起互动的受试者大脑活动之间存在的功能联系。在这项脑电图超扫描研究中，在专业飞行模拟器中重现了飞行的不同阶段，这一方面能够重现真实飞行的生态环境，另一方面能够通过系统模拟飞机仪表故障来控制机组人员中产生的不同互动程度。线性逆估计程序的结果，以及通过偏定向相干性估计的功能超连接性，显示在起飞和降落阶段两个大脑的活动之间存在密集的连接网络，此时机组人员之间的合作最为充分，相反，在两名飞行员活动独立的阶段则未显示出显著联系。
