Gu Heng, Chen He, Yao Qunli, He Wenbo, Wang Shaodi, Yang Chao, Li Jiaxi, Liu Huapeng, Li Xiaoli, Zhao Xiaochuan, Liang Guanhao
Center for Cognition and Neuroergonomics, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 519087, China.
School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Brain Sci. 2023 Feb 21;13(3):373. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13030373.
The study of mental workload has attracted much interest in neuroergonomics, a frontier field of research. However, there appears no consensus on how to measure mental workload effectively because the mental workload is not only regulated by task difficulty but also affected by individual skill level reflected as mental schema. In this study, we investigated the alterations in the functional brain network induced by a 10-day simulated piloting task with different difficulty levels. Topological features quantifying global and local information communication and network organization were analyzed. It was found that during different tests, the global efficiency did not change, but the gravity center of the local efficiency of the network moved from the frontal to the posterior area; the small-worldness of the functional brain network became stronger. These results demonstrate the reconfiguration of the brain network during the development of mental schema. Furthermore, for the first two tests, the global and local efficiency did not have a consistent change trend under different difficulty levels, but after forming the developed mental schema, both of them decreased with the increase in task difficulty, showing sensitivity to the increase in mental workload. Our results demonstrate brain network reconfiguration during the motor learning process and reveal the importance of the developed mental schema for the accurate assessment of mental workload. We concluded that the efficiency of the brain network was associated with mental workload with developed mental schema.
心理负荷的研究在神经工效学这一前沿研究领域引起了广泛关注。然而，对于如何有效测量心理负荷尚未达成共识，因为心理负荷不仅受任务难度调节，还受作为心理图式体现的个体技能水平影响。在本研究中，我们调查了由为期10天的不同难度水平模拟飞行任务所诱发的大脑功能网络变化。分析了量化全局和局部信息交流及网络组织的拓扑特征。结果发现，在不同测试期间，全局效率未发生变化，但网络局部效率的重心从额叶区域转移至后部区域；大脑功能网络的小世界特性变得更强。这些结果表明在心理图式发展过程中大脑网络的重新配置。此外，在前两次测试中，不同难度水平下全局和局部效率没有一致的变化趋势，但在形成成熟的心理图式后，二者均随任务难度增加而降低，显示出对心理负荷增加的敏感性。我们的结果证明了运动学习过程中大脑网络的重新配置，并揭示了成熟心理图式对准确评估心理负荷的重要性。我们得出结论，大脑网络效率与具有成熟心理图式时的心理负荷相关。
