Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Shows Potential for Predicting Individual Differences in Fatigue Vulnerability
Abstract
Fatigue from sleep loss exerts deleterious effects on group performance, and some individuals are more affected than others. Underlying pattern of cortical activation may partially account for such individual differences. The present research utilized fMRI procedures to examine the non-sleep-deprived cortical activation of a group of active-duty military pilots on whom the effects of sleep loss had previously been quantified& The pilots completed a Sternberg Working Memory Task (SWMT) alternately with a control task during 13-minute scans. Examination of the number of activated voxels in response to SWMT indicated that, as a group, the pilots were more similar to a group of fatigue-resistant non-pilots than to a group of fatigue vulnerable non-pilots. In addition, within the pilot group, the number of activated voxels was significantly related to the level of fatigue vulnerability on a simulator flight-performance task. Thus, it appears that baseline fMRI scans may be useful for predicting fatigue susceptibility.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA424328
Entities
People
- J. L. Caldwell
- Jennifer K. Smith
- John A. Caldwell
- Mark George
- Qiwen Mu
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory