Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS

Abstract An improved understanding of how the brain allocates mental resources as a function of task difficulty is critical for enhancing human performance. Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a field-deployable optical brain monitoring technology that provides a direct measure of cereb...

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Autores principales:	Mickaël Causse, Zarrin Chua, Vsevolod Peysakhovich, Natalia Del Campo, Nadine Matton
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/432ea73678534fc8a11ba87b7c2baad1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:432ea73678534fc8a11ba87b7c2baad12021-12-02T15:04:58ZMental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS10.1038/s41598-017-05378-x2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/432ea73678534fc8a11ba87b7c2baad12017-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05378-xhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract An improved understanding of how the brain allocates mental resources as a function of task difficulty is critical for enhancing human performance. Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a field-deployable optical brain monitoring technology that provides a direct measure of cerebral blood flow in response to cognitive activity. We found that fNIRS was sensitive to variations in task difficulty in both real-life (flight simulator) and laboratory settings (tests measuring executive functions), showing increased concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) and decreased concentration of deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb) in the prefrontal cortex as the tasks became more complex. Intensity of prefrontal activation (HbO2 concentration) was not clearly correlated to task performance. Rather, activation intensity shed insight on the level of mental effort, i.e., how hard an individual was working to accomplish a task. When combined with performance, fNIRS provided an estimate of the participants’ neural efficiency, and this efficiency was consistent across levels of difficulty of the same task. Overall, our data support the suitability of fNIRS to assess the mental effort related to human operations and represents a promising tool for the measurement of neural efficiency in other contexts such as training programs or the clinical setting.Mickaël CausseZarrin ChuaVsevolod PeysakhovichNatalia Del CampoNadine MattonNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-15 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Mickaël Causse Zarrin Chua Vsevolod Peysakhovich Natalia Del Campo Nadine Matton Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS
description	Abstract An improved understanding of how the brain allocates mental resources as a function of task difficulty is critical for enhancing human performance. Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a field-deployable optical brain monitoring technology that provides a direct measure of cerebral blood flow in response to cognitive activity. We found that fNIRS was sensitive to variations in task difficulty in both real-life (flight simulator) and laboratory settings (tests measuring executive functions), showing increased concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) and decreased concentration of deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb) in the prefrontal cortex as the tasks became more complex. Intensity of prefrontal activation (HbO2 concentration) was not clearly correlated to task performance. Rather, activation intensity shed insight on the level of mental effort, i.e., how hard an individual was working to accomplish a task. When combined with performance, fNIRS provided an estimate of the participants’ neural efficiency, and this efficiency was consistent across levels of difficulty of the same task. Overall, our data support the suitability of fNIRS to assess the mental effort related to human operations and represents a promising tool for the measurement of neural efficiency in other contexts such as training programs or the clinical setting.
format	article
author	Mickaël Causse Zarrin Chua Vsevolod Peysakhovich Natalia Del Campo Nadine Matton
author_facet	Mickaël Causse Zarrin Chua Vsevolod Peysakhovich Natalia Del Campo Nadine Matton
author_sort	Mickaël Causse
title	Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS
title_short	Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS
title_full	Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS
title_fullStr	Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS
title_full_unstemmed	Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS
title_sort	mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fnirs
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/432ea73678534fc8a11ba87b7c2baad1
work_keys_str_mv	AT mickaelcausse mentalworkloadandneuralefficiencyquantifiedintheprefrontalcortexusingfnirs AT zarrinchua mentalworkloadandneuralefficiencyquantifiedintheprefrontalcortexusingfnirs AT vsevolodpeysakhovich mentalworkloadandneuralefficiencyquantifiedintheprefrontalcortexusingfnirs AT nataliadelcampo mentalworkloadandneuralefficiencyquantifiedintheprefrontalcortexusingfnirs AT nadinematton mentalworkloadandneuralefficiencyquantifiedintheprefrontalcortexusingfnirs
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Mental workload and neural efficiency quantified in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS

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