A ship Navigator´s mental workload using salivary NO3− compared with R-R interval: Simulator-based experiment

Our goal is that salivary NO₃^- reveals mental workload of ship Navigators, and that we confirm new navigators can recognize and avoid the risky situations, where veteran navigators´ mental workload builds up, by using salivary NO₃^- measurement device. Various physiological indices exist in all over the world, for example, heart rate variability (R-R interval), nasal temperature, and salivary amylase; these are exactly good indices but cannot show quick response on the spot and the trend like a moving average as well as salivary NO₃^-. We have to create the salivary NO₃^- measurement device to evaluate the mental workload of navigators using salivary NO₃^- by reason of nonexistence of the device. We have confirmed the response of the device to simulator training scenarios´ events for new and veteran navigators. Based on R-R interval, this paper proposes that we prove salivary NO₃^- reveals a navigator´s mental workload for navigational events in the simulator.