Visual Perception , Flight Performance , and Reaction Time Impairments in Military Pilots during 26 Hours of Continuous Wake : Implications for Automated Workload Control Systems as Fatigue Management Tools

INTRODUCTION: Performance data from a visual perception task, complex motor flight task, and psychomotor vigilance task were evaluated in U.S. Air Force Pilots navigating a high-fidelity fixed-wing jet simulator over 26.5 hours of continuous wakefulness. METHODS: Eight military pilots on flight status performed the primary task of flying a simulated 12.5-hour overnight mission in an Air Refueling Part Task Trainer (ARPTT). Response omission to presentation of singleand double-light stimuli displayed in random sequence across the cockpit instrument panel was the metric used to assess Choice Visual PerceptionTask (CVPT) performance. Deviation from an established azimuth heading in the ARPTT during the CVPT was the flight metric used to assess complex motor performance. Speed, lapse, false start, and anticipation were the metrics used to assess Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) performance during crew rest periods. RESULTS: Significant visual perceptual, complex motor, and psychomotor vigilance (speed and lapse) impairments occurred at 19 hours awake in the 8-subject group. CVPT response omissions significantly correlated with ARPTT azimuth deviations at r = 0.97, and with PVT speed at r = -0.92 and lapses at r = 0.90. ARPTT azimuth deviations significantly correlated with PVT speed at r = -0.92 and lapses at r = 0.91. CONCLUSIONS: Acute sleep deprivation degrades visual perceptual, complex motor, and simple motor performance. Complex motor impairments in this task environment strongly correlate with visual perceptual 1 United States Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, Fort Rucker, Alabama. 2 Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. 3 Henry F. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Rockville, Maryland. 4 LB&B, L3COM Simulator Systems, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey. 5 US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland. 6 311 Human Systems Wing, Brooks City-Base, San Antonio, Texas. Russo, M. ; Sing, H. ; Kendall, A. ; Johnson, D. ; Santiago, S. ; Escolas, S. ; Holland, D. ; Thorne, D. ; Hall, S. ; Redmond, D. ; Thomas, M. (2005) Visual Perception, Flight Performance, and Reaction Time Impairments in Military Pilots during 26 Hours of Continuous Wake: Implications for Automated Workload Control Systems as Fatigue Management Tools. In Strategies to Maintain Combat Readiness during Extended Deployments – A Human Systems Approach (pp. 27-1 – 27-16). Meeting Proceedings RTO-MP-HFM-124, Paper 27. Neuilly-sur-Seine, France: RTO. Available from: http://www.rto. nato.int/abstracts.asp. Visual Perception, Flight Performance, and Reaction Time Impairments in Military Pilots during 26 Hours of Continuous Wake: Implications for Automated Workload Control Systems as Fatigue Management Tools 27 2 RTO-MP-HFM-124 impairments. This research provides support for the use of visual perceptual measures as surrogates of complex motor performance in operational situations where the primary cognitive inputs are through the visual system. This research supports the general notion that assessing visual system processes might be a component of cognitive monitoring systems that could potentially be applied to automated workload reduction systems.