Non-conscious errors in the control of dynamic events synchronized with heartbeats: A new challenge for human reliability study

This paper studies the synchronization between dynamic events with heartbeats and its impact on non-conscious errors in the control of dynamic events. It proposes a methodology to compare two groups of subjects: a group for which alarms are synchronized with the heartbeats of the subjects and a group for which they are not. Quantitative and subjective data were recorded during four experimental phases from a low level to a high level of workload. Results showed that there was a significant impact of such a synchronization of events with heartbeat: people produced more errors when this synchronization was present and they were not really conscious about the disruption of their abilities. This study is very promising and shows the interest of developing future on-line or off-line human reliability assessment methods based on unsafe behaviors associated with this synchronization

The psychophysiology primer : A guide to methods and a broad review with a focus on human-computer interaction

Publisher Copyright: © 2016 B. Cowley, M. Filetti, K. Lukander.Peer reviewe

Electro-Encephalography and Electro-Oculography in Aeronautics: A Review Over the Last Decade (2010–2020)

Electro-encephalography (EEG) and electro-oculography (EOG) are methods of electrophysiological monitoring that have potentially fruitful applications in neuroscience, clinical exploration, the aeronautical industry, and other sectors. These methods are often the most straightforward way of evaluating brain oscillations and eye movements, as they use standard laboratory or mobile techniques. This review describes the potential of EEG and EOG systems and the application of these methods in aeronautics. For example, EEG and EOG signals can be used to design brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and to interpret brain activity, such as monitoring the mental state of a pilot in determining their workload. The main objectives of this review are to, (i) offer an in-depth review of literature on the basics of EEG and EOG and their application in aeronautics; (ii) to explore the methodology and trends of research in combined EEG-EOG studies over the last decade; and (iii) to provide methodological guidelines for beginners and experts when applying these methods in environments outside the laboratory, with a particular focus on human factors and aeronautics. The study used databases from scientific, clinical, and neural engineering fields. The review first introduces the characteristics and the application of both EEG and EOG in aeronautics, undertaking a large review of relevant literature, from early to more recent studies. We then built a novel taxonomy model that includes 150 combined EEG-EOG papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conferences from January 2010 to March 2020. Several data elements were reviewed for each study (e.g., pre-processing, extracted features and performance metrics), which were then examined to uncover trends in aeronautics and summarize interesting methods from this important body of literature. Finally, the review considers the advantages and limitations of these methods as well as future challenges

Brain Computer Interfaces and Emotional Involvement: Theory, Research, and Applications

This reprint is dedicated to the study of brain activity related to emotional and attentional involvement as measured by Brain–computer interface (BCI) systems designed for different purposes. A BCI system can translate brain signals (e.g., electric or hemodynamic brain activity indicators) into a command to execute an action in the BCI application (e.g., a wheelchair, the cursor on the screen, a spelling device or a game). These tools have the advantage of having real-time access to the ongoing brain activity of the individual, which can provide insight into the user’s emotional and attentional states by training a classification algorithm to recognize mental states. The success of BCI systems in contemporary neuroscientific research relies on the fact that they allow one to “think outside the lab”. The integration of technological solutions, artificial intelligence and cognitive science allowed and will allow researchers to envision more and more applications for the future. The clinical and everyday uses are described with the aim to invite readers to open their minds to imagine potential further developments

Development of nonlinear techniques based on time-frequency representation and information theory for the analysis of EEG signals to assess different states of consciousness

Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings provide insight into the changes in brain activity associated with various states of anesthesia, epilepsy, brain attentiveness, sleep disorders, brain disorders, etc. EEG's are complex signals whose statistical properties depend on both space and time. Their randomness and non-stationary characteristics make them impossible to be described in an accurate way with a simple technique, requiring analysis and characterization involves techniques that take into account their non-stationarity. For that, new advanced techniques in order to improve the efficiency of the EEG based methods used in the clinical practice have to be developed. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate and implement different methods based on nonlinear techniques in order to develop indexes able to characterize the frequency spectrum, the nonlinear dynamics and the complexity of the EEG signals recorded in different state of consciousness. Firstly, a new method for removing peak and spike in biological signal based on the signal envelope was successfully designed and applied to simulated and real EEG signals, obtaining performances significantly better than the traditional adaptive filters. Then, several studies were carried out in order to extract and evaluate EEG measures based on nonlinear techniques in different contexts such as the automatic detection of sleepiness and the characterization and prediction of the nociceptive stimuli and the assessment of the sedation level. Four novel indexes were defined by calculating entropy of the Choi-Williams distribution (CWD) with respect to time or frequency, by using the probability mass function at each time instant taken independently or by using the probability mass function of the entire CWD. The values of these indexes tend to decrease, with different proportion, when the behavior of the signals evolved from chaos or randomness to periodicity and present differences when comparing EEG recorded in eyes-open and eyes-closed states and in ictal and non-ictal states. Measures obtained with time-frequency representation, mutual information function and correntropy, were applied to EEG signals for the automatic sleepiness detection in patients suffering sleep disorders. The group of patients with excessive daytime sleepiness presented more power in ¿ band than the group without sleepiness, which presented higher spectral and cross-spectral entropy in the frontal zone in d band. More complexity in the occipital zone was found in the group of patients without sleepiness in ß band, while a stronger nonlinear coupling between the occipital and frontal regions was detected in patients with excessive daytime sleepiness, in ß band. Time-frequency representation and non-linear measures were also used in order to study how adaptation and fatigue affect the event-related brain potentials to stimuli of different modalities. Differences between the responses to infrequent and frequent stimulation in different recording periods were found in series of averaged EEG epochs recorded after thermal, electrical and auditory stimulation. Nonlinear measures calculated on EEG filtered in the traditional frequency bands and in higher frequency bands improved the assessment of the sedation level. These measures were obtained by applying all the developed techniques on signals recorded from patients sedated, in order to predict the responses to pain stimulation such as nail bad compression and endoscopy tube insertion. The proposed measures exhibit better performances than the bispectral index (BIS), a traditional indexes used for hypnosis assessment. In conclusion, nonlinear measures based on time-frequency representation, mutual information functions and correntropy provided additional information that helped to improve the automatic sleepiness detection, the characterization and prediction of the nociceptive responses and thus the assessment of the sedation level.El registro de la señal Electroencefalografíca (EEG) proporciona información sobre los cambios en la actividad cerebral asociados con varios estados de la anestesia, la epilepsia, la atención cerebral, los trastornos del sueño, los trastornos cerebrales, etc. Los EEG son señales complejas cuyas propiedades estadísticas dependen del espacio y del tiempo. Sus características aleatorias y no estacionarias hacen imposible que el EEG se describa de forma precisa con una técnica sencilla requiriendo un análisis y una caracterización que implica técnicas que tengan en cuenta su no estacionariedad. Todo esto aumenta la necesidad de desarrollar nuevas técnicas avanzadas con el fin de mejorar la eficiencia de los métodos utilizados en la práctica clínica que son basados en el análisis de EEG. En esta tesis se han investigado y aplicado diferentes métodos utilizando técnicas no lineales con el fin de desarrollar índices capaces de caracterizar el espectro de frecuencias, la dinámica no lineal y la complejidad de las señales EEG registradas en diferentes estados de conciencia. En primer lugar, se ha desarrollado un nuevo algoritmo basado en la envolvente de la señal para la eliminación de ruido de picos en las señales biológicas. Este algoritmo ha sido aplicado a señales simuladas y reales obteniendo resultados significativamente mejores comparados con los filtros adaptativos tradicionales. Seguidamente, se han llevado a cabo varios estudios con el fin de extraer y evaluar las medidas de EEG basadas en técnicas no lineales en diferentes contextos. Se han definido nuevos índices mediante el cálculo de la entropía de la distribución de Choi-Williams (DCW) con respecto al tiempo o la frecuencia. Se ha observado que los valores de estos índices tienden a disminuir, en diferentes proporciones, cuando el comportamiento de las señales evoluciona de caótico o aleatorio a periódico. Además, se han encontrado valores diferentes de estos índices aplicados a la señal EEG registrada en diferentes estados. Diferentes medidas basadas en la representación tiempo-frecuencia, la función de información mutua y la correntropia se han aplicado al EEG para la detección automática de la somnolencia en pacientes que sufren trastornos del sueño. Se ha observado en la zona frontal que la potencia en la banda θ es mayor en los pacientes con somnolencia diurna excesiva, mientras que la entropía espectral y la entropía espectral cruzada en la banda δ es mayor en los pacientes sin somnolencia. En el grupo sin somnolencia se ha encontrado más complejidad en la zona occipital, mientras que el acoplamiento no lineal entre las regiones occipital y frontal ha resultado más fuerte en pacientes con somnolencia diurna excesiva, en la banda β. La representación tiempo-frecuencia y las medidas no lineales se han utilizado para estudiar cómo la adaptación y la fatiga afectan a los potenciales cerebrales relacionados con estímulos térmicos, eléctricos y auditivos. Analizando el promedio de varias épocas de EEG grabadas después de la estimulación, se han encontrado diferencias entre las respuestas a la estimulación frecuente e infrecuente en diferentes períodos de registro. Todas las técnicas que se han desarrollado, se han aplicado a señales EEG registradas en pacientes sedados, con el fin de predecir las respuestas a la estimulación del dolor. Un conjunto de medidas calculadas en señales EEG filtradas en diferentes bandas de frecuencia ha permitido mejorar la evaluación del nivel de sedación. Las medidas propuestas han presentado un mejor rendimiento comparado con el índice bispectral, un indicador de hipnosis tradicional. En conclusión, las medidas no lineales basadas en la representación tiempofrecuencia, funciones de información mutua y correntropia han proporcionado informaciones adicionales que contribuyeron a mejorar la detección automática de la somnolencia, la caracterización y predicción de las respuestas nociceptivas y por lo tanto la evaluación del nivel de sedación

Étude de corrélats électrophysiologiques pour la discrimination d'états de fatigue et de charge mentale : apports pour les interfaces cerveau-machine passives

Mental state estimation on the basis of cerebral activity and its resulting physiological activities has become a challenge for passive Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), in particular to address a need in neuroergonomics. This thesis work focuses on mental fatigue and workload estimation. Its purpose is to provide efficient and realistic processing chains. Thus, one issue was the modulation of workload markers as well as classification performance robustness depending on time-on-task (TOT). The impact of workload and TOT on attentional state markers was also assessed. For those purposes, an experimental protocol was implemented to collect the electroencephalographic (EEG), cardiac (ECG) and ocular (EOG) signals from healthy volunteers as they performed for a prolonged period of time a task that mixes working memory load and selective attention. Efficient signal processing chains that include spatial filtering and classification steps were designed in order to better estimate these mental states. The relevance of several electrophysiological markers was compared, among which spontaneous EEG activity and event-related potentials (ERPs), as well as various preprocessing steps such as spatial filtering methods for ERPs. Interaction effects between mental states were brought to light. In particular, TOT negatively impacted mental workload estimation when using power features. However, the chain based on ERPs was robust to this effect. A comparison of the type of stimuli that can be used to elicit the ERPs revealed that task-independent probes still allow very high performance, which shows their relevance for real-life implementation. Lastly, ongoing work that aims at assessing task-robust workload markers, as well as the usefulness of auditory ERPs in a single-stimulus paradigm will be presented as prospects.L'estimation de l'état mental d'un individu sur la base de son activité cérébrale et de ses activités physiologiques résultantes est devenue l'un des challenges des interfaces cerveau-machine (ICM) dites passives, dans le but notamment de répondre à un besoin en neuroergonomie. Ce travail de thèse se focalise sur l'estimation des états de fatigue et de charge mentale. Son objectif est de proposer des chaines de traitement efficaces et réalistes dans leur mise en œuvre. Ainsi, un des points à l'étude a été la modulation des indicateurs de charge ainsi que la robustesse des performances de classification en fonction du temps passé sur une tâche (TPT). L'impact de la charge et du TPT sur les marqueurs d'état attentionnel a aussi été évalué. Pour ce faire, un protocole expérimental a été mis en œuvre afin de recueillir les signaux électro-encéphalographiques (EEG), cardiaques (ECG) et oculaires (EOG) de participants volontaires sains lors de la réalisation prolongée d'une tâche combinant charge en mémoire de travail et attention sélective. Des chaînes de traitement performantes incluant une étape de filtrage spatial et une classification supervisée ont été mises en place afin de classer au mieux ces états. La pertinence de plusieurs marqueurs électrophysiologiques a été comparée, notamment l'activité EEG spontanée et les potentiels évoqués (PEs), ainsi que différentes étapes de prétraitement dont les méthodes de filtrage spatial pour PEs. Des effets d'interactions ont été mis au jour entre les différents états mentaux, dont un effet négatif du TPT sur les performances en classification de la charge mentale lorsque l'on utilise des marqueurs mesurant la puissance moyenne de l'EEG dans des bandes de fréquence d'intérêt. La chaîne basée sur les PEs est en revanche robuste à cet effet. Une comparaison du type de stimuli utilisables pour éliciter les PEs a révélé que des stimuli tâche-indépendants permettent tout de même d'obtenir des performances très élevées, ce qui montre leur pertinence pour une implémentation en situation réelle. En perspective seront présentés des travaux en cours visant à mettre en évidence des marqueurs de charge mentale robustes à la tâche, ainsi que l'utilité des potentiels évoqués auditifs en paradigme de simple stimulus

A neural network model of adaptively timed reinforcement learning and hippocampal dynamics

A neural model is described of how adaptively timed reinforcement learning occurs. The adaptive timing circuit is suggested to exist in the hippocampus, and to involve convergence of dentate granule cells on CA3 pyramidal cells, and NMDA receptors. This circuit forms part of a model neural system for the coordinated control of recognition learning, reinforcement learning, and motor learning, whose properties clarify how an animal can learn to acquire a delayed reward. Behavioral and neural data are summarized in support of each processing stage of the system. The relevant anatomical sites are in thalamus, neocortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, amygdala, and cerebellum. Cerebellar influences on motor learning are distinguished from hippocampal influences on adaptive timing of reinforcement learning. The model simulates how damage to the hippocampal formation disrupts adaptive timing, eliminates attentional blocking, and causes symptoms of medial temporal amnesia. It suggests how normal acquisition of subcortical emotional conditioning can occur after cortical ablation, even though extinction of emotional conditioning is retarded by cortical ablation. The model simulates how increasing the duration of an unconditioned stimulus increases the amplitude of emotional conditioning, but does not change adaptive timing; and how an increase in the intensity of a conditioned stimulus "speeds up the clock", but an increase in the intensity of an unconditioned stimulus does not. Computer simulations of the model fit parametric conditioning data, including a Weber law property and an inverted U property. Both primary and secondary adaptively timed conditioning are simulated, as are data concerning conditioning using multiple interstimulus intervals (ISIs), gradually or abruptly changing ISis, partial reinforcement, and multiple stimuli that lead to time-averaging of responses. Neurobiologically testable predictions are made to facilitate further tests of the model.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0175, 90-0128); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (90-0083); National Science Foundation (IRI-87-16960); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100