NIRS-based Cognitive Assessment of Safety-Critical Air Traffic Operations

Given the portability and minimal intrusiveness of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), there is potential for it to be used in an ecological setting, as compared to classical neuroimaging methods. In this paper, NIRS was used to assess the cognitive processes of operators performing complex, safety-critical Air Traffic Control (ATC) tasks. The haemodynamic response in the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) was obtained from an event-based analysis of the NIRS recordings. Despite the relative complexity of the experimental scenario, grand-averaged results from the analysis showed an evident Haemodynamic Response Function (HRF) in the right PFC, specifically for events in which the operator provided instructions to arriving aircraft (e.g., clear-to-Iand or go-around). The HRF peak was observed before the event, suggesting that maximum cognitive processing of the operator occurred before instructions were actually given. Overall, the study supports the suitability of NIRS as a tool for assessing the cognitive processes of operators in ecological settings, demonstrating the potential validity of NIRS-based measurements for BCI systems in safety-critical operations.