Investigating mental workload-induced changes in cortical oxygenation and frontal theta activity during simulated flights
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-10044-y
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Summary
This study addresses the challenge of accurately monitoring pilot mental workload (MWL) in aviation, a critical need for developing adaptive assistance systems. While physiological measures like EEG and fNIRS can detect MWL changes before performance declines, few studies systematically vary MWL levels or control for confounding cognitive states, particularly mental fatigue (MF). The research aimed to analyze the effects of stepwise increased MWL on cortical activation while explicitly controlling for MF. The experiment involved 35 participants with no prior flying experience performing a simulated flight on an Airbus A321 simulator. The task combined an adapted n-back task (0- to 3-back difficulty levels) with a parallel altitude monitoring task. To control for MF, the 40-minute duration was kept below the threshold where fatigue typically manifests, and n-back levels were pseudo-randomized. Data were collected via concurrent EEG and fNIRS, alongside performance metrics and self-reported MWL and MF scales. Results confirmed the successful manipulation of MWL without significant confounding from MF. Higher task difficulty led to increased subjective MWL ratings, performance declines, and specific physiological changes. In EEG, frontal theta activity increased significantly with difficulty, allowing discrimination of all levels except the two lowest. Notably, parietal alpha and beta activities did not show reliable differences, likely due to task-switching effects or interference from other cognitive states. In fNIRS, reduced frontal deoxyhaemoglobin (Hbr) concentration indicated higher cortical activation. fNIRS proved more sensitive to low-difficulty tasks, while EEG was more sensitive to high-difficulty tasks. A plateau effect was observed at the highest MWL level, suggesting an upper boundary to individual cognitive capacity. The findings highlight the utility of physiological measurement in aviation for real-time cognitive state assessment. The study suggests that frontal theta activity (specifically at electrode Fz) is a robust EEG marker for MWL, whereas fNIRS offers complementary sensitivity. The lack of reliable alpha/beta effects underscores the importance of controlling for confounding states and task characteristics when developing physiological monitoring systems for complex, multi-task environments like the cockpit.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 4 | 2026-08-23 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.8-27b-gittensor | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-08-23 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 11 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | partial | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-09 |
Summary generated by qwen3.8-27b-gittensor on 2026-08-23; verification: pending re-verification.
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- Empirical Findings: physiological data, self report data