Monitoring Psychomotor Response to Stress by Evoked Auditory Responses
Abstract
A sensitive central nervous system (CNS) monitoring technic that can be correlated with behavior and with changes in the surrounding environment during aerospace flight is desirable to the flight surgeon interested in the early detection of possible adverse effects of the flight on the subject, to the neurophysiologist concerned with basic cerebral mechanisms occurring during the unique conditions of space flight, and to the systems engineer interested in any redundant indirect measurement of environmental parameters which serve to enhance the total system reliability. In this study, a special-purpose digital computer was used to obtain average EEG responses evoked from human subjects by repetitive, nondistracting clicks during sedentary activity, mildly symptomatic hyperventilation, hypoxia, and 2.5 +G acceleration on the SAM human centrifuge and in an NF-100 aircraft. The waveforms obtained were qualitatively distinct for each group. No appreciable alteration of the relative amplitudes or latencies of the individual response components was caused by distraction, habituation, or variations in ambient noise. No significant effects were detectable in the corresponding EEG's. This preliminary investigation suggests that average evoked responses may be useful and sensitive indicators of CNS activity during aerospace flight.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0471880
Entities
People
- J. A. Freeman
Organizations
- United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine