EEG activity of aviators during imagery flight training

Objective: Imagery flight training (IFT) is widely used in aviation without neurophysiological evaluation. Electroencephalogram (EEG) during IFT was compared between experienced fighter pilots (FP) and novice pilots (NP). Methods: Six FP and 9 NP performed imagery right bank, left bank, right roll, and left roll maneuvers. Each task was repeated 5 times in a random order. Instantaneous EEG power was calculated by the intertrial variance method. Results: In FP, 3 waves of event-related desynchronization (ERD) were observed. The third ERD (ERD3) was observed at all the electrode positions except Fp1 which began 0.25 s before the beginning of IFT and reached its peak 0.25 s after the beginning of IFT. In NP, ERD was not related to the start of IFT. The difference in event-related EEG at the peak of ERD3 was not significant between FP and NP. However, the negative change to the peak of ERD3 was significantly larger in FP than in NP. Conclusions: It is speculated that ERD3 in FP may indicate the activation of cortical areas including visual- and motor-related areas involved in IFT. Significance: It is speculated that the representation of IFT was programmed in visual- and motor-related cortical areas as an aviatorʹs career advances.