Evoked potential, cardiac, blink, and respiration measures of pilot workload in air-to-ground missions

Abstract

Brain evoked potentials were successfully recorded from F-4 pilots during air-to-ground training missions. They were recorded during two flight segments. During one the pilot was flying, and during the other, the weapon systems officer was flying the aircraft. The P2 component of the brain-evoked potential evidenced reduced amplitude during the pilot-flying segment, while the N1 component was reduced during both flight tasks compared to ground-based tasks. These data indicate that the P2 amplitude is sensitive to the level of pilot workload. These results were further substantiated using simultaneously recorded physiological data and subjective workload measures. For example, cardiac inter-beat intervals decreased during flight segments relative to those recorded when performing a tracking task, and further reduced for the pilot-flying vs. the weapon systems officer-flying segment. Eye blink measures were sensitive to the visual demands of the various tasks. These data show that evoked potentials can be recorded during flight, and that, together with cardiac and eye blink data, they provide a composite picture of operator state.