Free Cognitive Capacity Assessed by the P300 Method During Manual Docking Training in Space.

INTRODUCTION: The classical P300 brain potential method was used to assess the cognitive capacity during training of manual docking in space. The aim of the study was to enhance the safety of this operation during a mission.METHODS: To examine this, N = 8 cosmonauts had to perform the manually controlled docking task simultaneously with an acoustic monitoring task. The P300 component was evoked by the acoustic stimuli of the secondary task. The docking task had to be executed at three difficulty levels: low (station not turning); medium (station turning around one axis); and difficult (station turning around three axes). In the secondary task, subjects had to discriminate between a low and a high tone, which occurred with a probability of 90% and 10%, respectively. Subjects had to count the high tones. After the 10th high tone, they had to inspect the power supply by giving an oral command.RESULTS: A methodology for event-related potentials was successfully demonstrated under space conditions. The P300 amplitude was largest and the latency shortest during the medium difficult task.DISCUSSION: The results suggest that P300 can be recorded during the complex manual docking task in space and could be used to assess individual available cognitive capacity of cosmonauts during a space mission.Bubeev JA, Johannes B, Kotrovska TI, Schastlivtseva D, Bronnikov S, Hoermann H-J, Gaillard AWK. Free cognitive capacity assessed by the P300 method during manual docking training in space. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2024; 95(4):187-193.

A methodology to compensate for individual differences in psychophysiological assessment.

The main methodological drawback to use physiological measures as indicators of arousal is, the large interindividual variability of autonomic responses hindering the direct comparability, between individuals. The present methodology has been tested in two cohorts (n1=910, n2=845) of, pilot applicants during a selection procedure. Physiological data were obtained during two mentally, demanding tasks and during a Flight Simulator Test. Five typical Autonomic Response Patterns (ARP), were identified by cluster analyses. Autonomic spaces were constructed separately for each group of, subjects having the same typical ARP, on the basis of their normalized eigenvectors. The length of the, vector sum of scores on autonomic space dimensions provided an integral index for arousal, labeled, Psychophysiological Arousal Value (PAV). The PAV still reflected the changes in mental load during the, tests, but equalized physiological differences among ARP-groups. The results obtained in the first, cohort were verified in the second cohort.

PLATT: a flexible platform for experimental research on team performance in complex environments.

The present article introduces PLATT, a recently developed task environment for controlled experimental research on team performance in complex environments. PLATT was developed to meet the research demands posed by the complexity that present-day teams face. It consists of a flexible, modular software architecture and research-specific scenarios. The scenarios can target various types of tasks (e.g., planning, problem solving, and decision making) in different operational contexts. Different software configurations can be used to investigate questions pertaining to team structure, team virtuality, and multiteam systems. We describe the software architecture, one of the scenarios, and the broad range of automated and embedded measurement possibilities that PLATT offers. To illustrate PLATT's possibilities, in the present article, we describe a number of experiments that have used PLATT for a variety of research questions. We conclude that PLATT meets the formulated research demands and provides researchers with a flexible platform to investigate the complex issues that present-day teams face.