Monitoring Mental Fatigue in Analog Space Environment Using Optical Brain Imaging
- 1 Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;National Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Centre, Beijing, China
- 2 Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- 3 National Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Centre, Beijing, China
- 4 National Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Centre, Beijing, China
Abstract
Accurate assessment of mental fatigue level would improve operational safety and efficacy of astronauts for long-term space flight. Identification of neurophysiological markers can index impending overload or fatigue before performance decrements using neuroimaging technologies. The current study utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) to investigate the relationship of hemodynamic response in prefrontal cortex with changes of mental fatigue level, task performance (reaction time) during n-back working memory task and routine work task in analog space environment. Results indicated that the information entropy of hemodynamic response is related to task performance and subjective self-reported measures; the reaction time is predicted by regression analysis; and the accuracy of mental fatigue classification approaches 90%. Since fNIR is a portable, wearable and minimally intrusive methodology, it has the potential to be deployed in future space environments to monitoring mental fatigue and assessing the effort of operators in field environments.
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