Vom  Simulator  zur  Ak/vität  im  Gehirn:  das  EU-­‐Projekt  MAN4GEN  Chris&an  Windischberger  Medizinische  Universität  Wien  

Flying  is  Safe  •  Air  travel  is  the  safest  mode  of  transporta/on  •  Accident  rates  have  subsided  to  the  lowest  level    

Ascend, Airbus 2011

What  are  the  issues?  •  Technical  failures  have  reduced  significantly  •  Crews  are  trained  to  safely  deal  with  most  common  failures  •  Mismanagement  of  threats,  crew  errors  and  lack  of  situa/on  awareness  remain  upstream  

Percentage of all commercial aviation accidents (ICAO, 2013)

“Automa/on  Addic/on”  §  A  popular  term  describing  an  over-­‐reliance  on  technology  as  the  primary  means  of  providing  informa/on  of  resolving  a  problem  

§  Dichotomy  itself  presents  a  challenge:  

§  Crews  need  to  rely  on  automa/on  and  envelope  protec/on;  safety,  workload  management,  situa/on  awareness  benefit  from  automa/on  

 -­‐  HOWEVER  -­‐  

§  Simultaneously,  they  must  maintain  “manual  flying  skills”  

§  “manual”  can  refer  to  modes  with  varying  levels  of  human  input  to  control  the  aircraS.  

 

“Automa/on  Addic/on”  

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§  Causes  of  Faults  

§  Automa/on  could  fail  or  give  erroneous  informa/on  

§  Crews  may  misinterpret  perfectly-­‐opera/ng  systems  

§  Complexity  of  modes  may  cause  misinterpreta/on  by  crews  

§  Training  of  automa/on  failures  depends  on  simulator  capability  (only  what  the  crew  has  programmed)  

§  We  are  extremely  limited  in  simula/ng  auto-­‐flight  failures  (no  regulatory  drive)  

 §  Basic  premise  s/ll  exists:  

Aviate,  Navigate,  Communicate  

Man4Gen  Manual  Opera&ons  of  4th  Genera&on  Airliners  

GOAL:  to  iden/fy  the  common  thread  behind  the  events  that  lead  to  airplane  upsets  and  accidents,  and  to  recommend  short-­‐term  changes  to  opera/onal  procedures,  training  and  aircraS  systems  technology  in  order  to  mi/gate  this  threat  to  avia/on  safety    Achieved  through:  

•  Analysis  of  unexpected  and  challenging  situa/ons  •  Understanding  breakdown  of  situa/on  awareness    •  Developing  and  performing  experiments  related  to  unexpected  events  •  Analyzing  system  monitoring,  decision-­‐making  and  manual  control  •  Development  of  recommenda/ons  for  training,  procedures  and  system  design    

Man4Gen  -­‐  A  European  Consor/um  

Manual Operations of 4th Generation Airliners•  European Union Research•  Budget of €4.7 Million•  3 years (2012-2015)

Non-­‐Invasive  Brain  Mapping  Electro-­‐physiological  Methods  

•  Electroencephalography  (EEG)  •  Magnetoencephalography  (MEG)  

 Metabolic/vascular  Methods  

•  Transcranial  Doppler  Sonography  (TCD)  •  Near  Infrared  Spectroscopy  (NIRS)  •  Positron  Emission  Tomography  (PET)  •  Func/onal  Magne/c  Resonance  Imaging  (fMRI)  

fMRI  vs.  MRI  

MRI studies brain anatomy.

Functional MRI (fMRI) studies brain function.

Haemoglobin

Haemoglobin

Heme

Time instance [TR=300ms]

Haemodynamic Response

0 6 12 18 24 30

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Blocked  fMRI  Experiment  

off on off on off on off

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Ac/va/on  Mapping  

Ac/va/on  Mapping  

MR  Scanner  

h_p://usa.healthcare.siemens.com/magne/c-­‐resonance-­‐imaging/3t-­‐mri-­‐scanner/magnetom-­‐spectra  

h_p://www.nichtlus/g.de    

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?

timeP/BMATCH | MISMATCH ?

Task 2RWY 10 cleared for take off.

Wind 160/23.

[ 0.0 | 11.5 | 19.9 | 23.0 ]

P/B

RWY 10 cleared for take off.Wind 160/23.Task 1

[ H/W | T/W | - | - ]

P/B

M4G-­‐ANT.  Monitoring  and  an/cipa/on.  

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M4G-­‐ANT.  SPM  Results.  

M4G-­‐MR.  Mental  rota/on  task.  

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M4G-­‐MR.  SPM  Results  (SMT,  IIT)  

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Instrument Interpretation

Shepard-Metzler Mental Rotation

M4G-­‐MR.  SPM  Results  (SMT  vs  IIT)  

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M4G-­‐MR.  Conclusion.  

– Low  correla/on  (and  n.s.)  between  MR  and  II  performance  p  >  0.25,  rho  =  -­‐0.24  or  +0.30    

– Poten/al  neurobiological  basis:  common  but  also  dis/nct  brain  networks  •  Instrument  interpreta/on:  fusiform  gyrus,  temporal-­‐parietal  junc/on  •  Mental  rota/on:  parietal  regions,  striatum  

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M4G-­‐DM.  Decision  making  task.  

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M4G-­‐DM.  Interven/on  -­‐  Manual  -­‐  Missed.  

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Take  Home  Messages  

Methodological  Results  – fMRI  allows  for  task  designs  that  work  as  experimental  proxies  for  real  world  avia/on  skills  

– Heterogeneity  in  brain  ac/va/ons  exist  between  subjects  but  robust  overlap  within  group,  indica/ng  similar  cogni/ve  strategies,  making  pilots  a  highly  useful  study  popula/on  for  cogni/ve  (neuro)science  

Phenomenological  Results  – M4G-­‐ANT:  Ac/va/on  of  ventral  striatum  supports  embodied  cogni/on  models  

– M4G-­‐MR:  Low  and  unreliable  correla/on  between  II  and  MR  performance  can  be  linked  to  heterogeneity  in  underlying  brain  networks  

– M4G-­‐DM:  Deac/va/on  in  regions  can  be  linked  to  missed  response  

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This research is funded as part of the FP7 2012 Aeronautics and Air Transport programme under EC contract ACP2-GA-2012-314765-Man4Gen

Man4Gen  Partners:  

www.man4gen.eufmri.at