Functional brain activity monitoring during Unmanned Aerial Vehicle coordination

The efficiency and safety of many complex human-machine systems such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) are closely related to the cognitive workload and situational awareness of their operators. Subjective operator reports, physiological and behavioral measures are not reliably sensitive for monitoring cognitive overload. Drexel´s Optical Brain Imaging Team has already developed a portable safe and cost-effective optical brain imaging method called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) for monitoring the prefrontal cortex in clinical and field settings. The current study examined the relationship of the hemodynamic response in prefrontal cortex to mental workload, level of expertise, and task performance.