Neural signature of inattentional deafness

Inattentional deafness is the failure to hear otherwise audible sounds (usually alarms) that may occur under high workload conditions. One potential cause for its occurrence could be an atten- tional bottleneck that occurs when task demands are high, resulting in lack of resources for processing of additional tasks. In this fMRI experiment, we explore the brain regions active during the occurrence of inattentional deafness using a difficult perceptual-motor task in which the participants fly through a simulated Red Bull air race course and at the same time push a button on the joystick to the presence of audio alarms. Participants were instructed to focus on the difficult piloting task and to press the button on the joystick quickly when they noticed an audio alarm. The fMRI results revealed that audio misses relative to hits had significantly greater activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus IFG and the superior medial frontal cortex. Consistent with an attentional bottleneck, activity in these regions was also present for poor flying performance (contrast of gates missed versus gates passed for the flying task). A psychophysiological interaction analysis from the IFG identified reduced effective connectivity to auditory processing regions in the right superior temporal gyrus for missed audio alarms relative to audio alarms that were heard. This study identifies a neural signature of inattentional deafness in an ecologically valid situation by directly measuring differences in brain activity and effective connectivity between audio alarms that were not heard compared to those that were heard

Dynamic Visuomotor Transformation Involved with Remote Flying of a Plane Utilizes the ‘Mirror Neuron’ System

Brain regions involved with processing dynamic visuomotor representational transformation are investigated using fMRI. The perceptual-motor task involved flying (or observing) a plane through a simulated Red Bull Air Race course in first person and third person chase perspective. The third person perspective is akin to remote operation of a vehicle. The ability for humans to remotely operate vehicles likely has its roots in neural processes related to imitation in which visuomotor transformation is necessary to interpret the action goals in an egocentric manner suitable for execution. In this experiment for 3rd person perspective the visuomotor transformation is dynamically changing in accordance to the orientation of the plane. It was predicted that 3rd person remote flying, over 1st, would utilize brain regions composing the ‘Mirror Neuron’ system that is thought to be intimately involved with imitation for both execution and observation tasks. Consistent with this prediction differential brain activity was present for 3rd person over 1st person perspectives for both execution and observation tasks in left ventral premotor cortex, right dorsal premotor cortex, and inferior parietal lobule bilaterally (Mirror Neuron System) (Behaviorally: 1st>3rd). These regions additionally showed greater activity for flying (execution) over watching (observation) conditions. Even though visual and motor aspects of the tasks were controlled for, differential activity was also found in brain regions involved with tool use, motion perception, and body perspective including left cerebellum, temporo-occipital regions, lateral occipital cortex, medial temporal region, and extrastriate body area. This experiment successfully demonstrates that a complex perceptual motor real-world task can be utilized to investigate visuomotor processing. This approach (Aviation Cerebral Experimental Sciences ACES) focusing on direct application to lab and field is in contrast to standard methodology in which tasks and conditions are reduced to their simplest forms that are remote from daily life experience

Classification of single-trial auditory events using dry-wireless EEG during real and motion simulated flight

Application of neuro-augmentation technology based on dry-wireless EEG may be considerably beneficial for aviation and space operations because of the inherent dangers involved. In this study we evaluate classification performance of perceptual events using a dry-wireless EEG system during motion platform based flight simulation and actual flight in an open cockpit biplane to determine if the system can be used in the presence of considerable environmental and physiological artifacts. A passive task involving 200 random auditory presentations of a chirp sound was used for evaluation. The advantage of this auditory task is that it does not interfere with the perceptual motor processes involved with piloting the plane. Classification was based on identifying the presentation of a chirp sound vs. silent periods. Evaluation of Independent component analysis (ICA) and Kalman filtering to enhance classification performance by extracting brain activity related to the auditory event from other non-task related brain activity and artifacts was assessed. The results of permutation testing revealed that single trial classification of presence or absence of an auditory event was significantly above chance for all conditions on a novel test set. The best performance could be achieved with both ICA and Kalman filtering relative to no processing: Platform Off (83.4% vs. 78.3%), Platform On (73.1% vs. 71.6%), Biplane Engine Off (81.1% vs. 77.4%), and Biplane Engine On (79.2% vs. 66.1%). This experiment demonstrates that dry-wireless EEG can be used in environments with considerable vibration, wind, acoustic noise, and physiological artifacts and achieve good single trial classification performance that is necessary for future successful application of neuro-augmentation technology based on brain-machine interfaces

MNI Coordinates for Clusters of Brain Activity: Conjunction of F3-F1 and W3-W1.

<p>BA = Brodmann Area.</p><p>R = Right.</p><p>L = Left.</p><p>MT/MST = Medial Temporal/Medial Superior Temporal.</p><p>LOC = Lateral Occipital Cortex.</p><p>IPL = Inferior Parietal Lobule.</p><p>PoG = Post Central Gyrus.</p><p>PMd = Premotor Dorsal.</p><p>PMv = Premotor Ventral.</p><p>Cereb Lob = Cerebellar Lobule.</p

MNI Coordinates for Clusters of Brain Activity: Conjunction W3-W1 & W3-F3.

<p>BA = Brodmann Area.</p><p>R = Right.</p><p>SPL = Superior Parietal Lobule.</p><p>DLFC = Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex.</p><p>MFG = Middle Frontal Gyrus.</p

Experimental conditions and tasks.

<p>A: Experimental conditions consisted of flying the plane in 3^rd person (F3) and 1^st person (F1) perspectives as well as watching the flight of the plane while carrying out a simple motor task (move control stick to the right or left depending on color of the cones the plane is passing through) in 3^rd person (W3) and 1^st person (W1) perspectives. There was also a baseline condition where the subjects fixated their eyes on a pair of static cones and were instructed not to move. B: The task consisted of flying a plane through a simplified Red Bull Air Race course. Subjects were required to fly through red cones in a vertical manner in between the indicated marks with respect to altitude. Subjects were required to fly through blue cones in a level horizontal manner between the indicated marks with respect to altitude.</p

Evaluating task performance.

<p>Performance on the flying task was evaluated based on three measures: 1. Distance to the center of the cones when passing through the gates; 2. The distance to the target altitude denoted by the distance to the center between the colored bands on the cones; 3. Degrees to correct angle (0 degree target for level flight; 90 degree target for vertical flight).</p

MNI Coordinates for Clusters of Brain Activity: Conjunction F3-F1 and F3-W3.

<p>BA = Brodmann Area.</p><p>R = Right.</p><p>L = Left.</p><p>MT/MST = Medial Temporal/Medial Superior Temporal.</p><p>LOC = Lateral Occipital Cortex.</p><p>IPL = Inferior Parietal Lobule.</p><p>PoG = Post Central Gyrus.</p><p>PrG = Pre Central Gyrus.</p><p>PMd = Premotor Dorsal.</p><p>PMv = Premotor Ventral.</p><p>SMA = Supplementary Motor Area.</p><p>MFG = Middle Frontal Gyrus.</p><p>Cereb Lob = Cerebellar Lobule.</p

Brain activity specific to 3^rd person flying and watching conditions.

<p> A. Random-effects results rendered on the normalized brain of the 3^rd person flying condition relative to the other conditions as well as their conjunction (F3-F1) and (F3-W3) (pFDR <0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons). B. Random-effects results rendered on the normalized brain of the 3^rd person watching condition relative to the other conditions as well as their conjunction (W3-W1) and (W3-F3) (pFDR <0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons).</p

Differential 3^rd person brain activity present during both execution and observation of action.

<p>Random-effects results rendered on the normalized brain denoting ‘Mirror Neuron’ system characteristics in that the differential activity is present both for flying (execution) and watching (observation) conditions A. (F3-F1) and (W3-W1) with the additional constraint that the activity be greater for the flying (execution) condition B. (F3-F1) and (W3-W1) and (F3-W3) (pFDR <0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons).</p