Innovative Research for Aircrew Safety

Photo By Megan Mudersbach | Dr. Kara Blacker, research psychologist in the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory at Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton (NAMRU-Dayton), uses recent advances in neuroscience to develop new methods for monitoring responses to physiological stress in a simulated operational environment.  

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OH, UNITED STATES

09.11.2019

Story by Megan Mudersbach 

Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton

By: Dr. Kara Blacker, Research Psychologist

The Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton’s (NAMRU-Dayton) Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (NAMRL) continues to respond to the issue of physiological episodes with the goal of developing ways to keep aircrew safe. One line of research in these efforts is using electroencephalography (EEG) as a novel approach to detecting hypoxia, or low-oxygen condition.

Hypoxia is known to adversely affect a range of sensory and cognitive functions, such as reaction time and memory. However, symptoms of hypoxia vary widely among different individuals and some individuals do not experience any identifiable symptoms at all. Therefore, a reliable method for detecting hypoxia and the impending negative effects on cognition is needed.

Dr. Kara Blacker, research psychologist, is testing the utility of EEG to detect hypoxia before symptoms occur. NAMRL’s EEG Lab has a 64-channel Brain vision ActiCHamp EEG system that measures the electrical activity from the brain and can be used to assess sensory function. EEG is a non-invasive measure of brain activity that is recorded from electrodes placed on a person’s scalp. In an ongoing series of studies, Dr. Blacker has found that an EEG signature, known as an event-related potential (ERP), is sensitive to hypoxia. By comparing the ERP response under normal conditions (i.e., normoxia) and a low-oxygen condition (i.e., hypoxia), the results show that the neural response is reduced under hypoxic conditions. Notably, this difference in the neural response occurred within the same timeframe that the participants began performing worse on a task under hypoxic conditions. These results suggest that EEG may be able to serve as an early detector of hypoxia.

Dr. Blacker and her team are currently working on refining this work to test whether ERPs can also serve to track recovery from a hypoxic exposure, which may inform return to duty practices. They are also developing methods to measure the ERP response faster and with less hardware, to make the process easier to use in an operational environment.

• Date Taken: 09.11.2019
• Date Posted: 09.11.2019 15:37
• Story ID: 339756
• Location: WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OH, US