The Role of the Prefrontal Cortex and Functional Connectivity during Maritime Operations: An fNIRS study

Fan, Shiqi; Blanco‐Davis, Eduardo; Zhang, Jinfen; Bury, Alan; Warren, Jonathan; Yang, Zaili; Yan, Xinping; Wang, Jin; Fairclough, Stephen · 2020 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1910

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Summary

This study investigates the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying watchkeeping during maritime operations, specifically focusing on prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation and functional connectivity. Motivated by the high incidence of human error in maritime collisions, the research aims to characterize how sustained attention and decision-making processes engage the brain. The authors hypothesized that the right lateral PFC would be sensitive to these cognitive demands and that graph-theoretic measures of connectivity could predict safety-critical performance outcomes. The experiment utilized a ship bridge simulator with 40 participants, divided equally into experienced seafarers and inexperienced cadets. Participants performed a watchkeeping task comprising two phases: a 20-minute period of sustained attention to locate a target vessel, followed by a 10-minute decision-making phase to execute an evasive maneuver. Half of the participants also performed a secondary distraction task involving verbal reporting of vessel position. Neurovascular activation was measured using a 15-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) montage over the PFC. Data were preprocessed using correlation-based signal improvement (CBSI) to isolate oxygenated hemoglobin changes. Functional connectivity was analyzed using graph-theoretic metrics, specifically connection density and local clustering coefficients, derived from partial correlation matrices of the fNIRS channels. Results indicated distinct patterns of neural engagement across task phases. Neurovascular activation in the right lateral PFC decreased during the sustained attention phase but increased significantly during the decision-making phase. Graph-theoretic analysis revealed that network density declined during decision-making compared to sustained attention, whereas local clustering declined during sustained attention and increased when participants prepared their evasive maneuvers. Regression analyses demonstrated a significant association between these network measures and behavioral outcomes, including the distance at which the target vessel was spotted and the distance at which the evasive maneuver was initiated. Experienced participants generally performed better, initiating maneuvers at greater distances, though the distraction task did not significantly alter spotting distances. Subjective workload assessments confirmed that the distraction task increased perceived temporal demand. The study concludes that the right lateral PFC is critically involved in both vigilance and action selection during maritime watchkeeping. The findings suggest that graph-theoretic measures of functional connectivity provide a quantifiable metric for monitoring cognitive states and are predictive of operational performance. This implies that fNIRS-based neuroergonomic tools could be valuable for assessing operator readiness and safety in high-stakes environments, potentially aiding in the development of real-time monitoring systems to mitigate human error in maritime operations.

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• neuro workload indices