Augmenting Visual Search Performance with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
Abstract
Various military personnel endure rigorous and demanding man hours designated to monitoring and locating targets in tasks such as cyber defense and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations. These tasks are monotonous and repetitive in nature which can result in a vigilant decrement. A vigilance decrement occurs when cognitive demand exceeds the capability of the operator which results in a decrease in performance. The objective of the study was to evaluate a form of non-invasive brain stimulation known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left frontal eye field (LFEF) region of the scalp in regards to performance during a visual search task. The findings suggest that both the anodal and cathodal stimulation configuration significantly improves detection accuracy during the task compared to the sham condition. In addition, a correlation was found in relation to various eye metrics (percent of eye closure and Blinking Frequency) and the stimulation condition. Hence, the use of tDCS over the LFEF would be a beneficial countermeasure to mitigate the vigilance decrement and increase detection accuracy during a visual search task.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA623248
Entities
People
- Chuck D. Goodyear
- Justin Nelson
- Lindsey K. Mcintire
- R. A. Mckinley
Organizations
- Infoscitex Corporation