By Aviation.com Staff

A new NASA study aims to figure out how best to monitor brains of pilots as they are flying in order to notify them when brain overload is causing dangerous levels of stress, fatigue and distraction.

"No matter how much training pilots have, conditions could occur when too much is going on in the cockpit," said Angela Harrivel, a NASA biomedical engineer who leads the research on 15 test subjects. "What we hope to achieve by this study is a way to sensitively -- and, ultimately, unobtrusively -- determine when pilots become mentally overloaded."

The researchers are using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and other imaging technology to measure blood flow in the brain's cortex and the concentration of oxygen in the blood. This emerging technology offers a non-invasive, safe, portable and inexpensive method for monitoring indicators of neural activity, according to a NASA statement. The scientists "hope to find ways to improve the interaction between the increasingly sophisticated automation being used in aircraft and the humans who operate those aircraft. The goal is to aid pilot decision-making to improve aviation safety"

The test subjects don headgear fitted with optical or electrical sensors and sit in a moving cockpit simulator that creates the sensation of flying. The volunteers perform basic functional tasks and participate in more complex flight simulations. Future tests will challenge the subjects with stress-inducing conditions as they use a joystick and flight instruments to try to stay "airborne" in the simulator.

"Flying an aircraft involves multitasking that potentially can push the limits of human performance," Harrivel said. "When we increase stress and difficulty we can see how the subject reacts, measuring brain activity during overload."

The work is being done at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland as part of the space agency's
Aviation Safety Program.