How a pilot's brain copes with stress and mental load? Insights from the executive control network.

In aviation, mental workload and stress are two major factors that can considerably impact a pilot's flight performance and decisions. Their consequences can be even more dramatic in single-pilot aircraft or with the forthcoming single-pilot operations where the pilot will fly alone and will not be able to be assisted in case of difficulty. An accurate and automatic monitoring of the pilot's mental state could help to prevent the potentially dangerous effects of an excess mental workload and stress.

Age-related effect on language control and executive control in bilingual and monolingual speakers: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.

Research suggests that bilingual language control and executive control (EC) have similar mechanisms and share common brain networks. Managing two languages presumably reinforces these networks and enhances the level of general executive functioning in bilinguals. Despite a huge amount of research, there is not yet any consensus on the nature of the potential bilingual advantage.

Human Voice as a Measure of Mental Load Level.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine a reliable and efficient set of acoustic parameters of the human voice able to estimate individuals' mental load level. Implementing detection methods and real-time analysis of mental load is a major challenge for monitoring and enhancing human task performance, especially during high-risk activities (e.g.

Cardiovascular correlates of emotional state, cognitive workload and time-on-task effect during a realistic flight simulation.

In aviation, emotion and cognitive workload can considerably increase the probability of human error. An accurate online physiological monitoring of pilot's mental state could prevent accidents. The heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) of 21 private pilots were analysed during two realistic flight simulator scenarios.

Using theta and alpha band power to assess cognitive workload in multitasking environments.

Cognitive workload is of central importance in the fields of human factors and ergonomics. A reliable measurement of cognitive workload could allow for improvements in human machine interface designs and increase safety in several domains. At present, numerous studies have used electroencephalography (EEG) to assess cognitive workload, reporting the rise in cognitive workload to be associated with increases in theta band power and decreases in alpha band power.

Vowelling and semantic priming effects in Arabic.

In the present experiment we used a semantic judgment task with Arabic words to determine whether semantic priming effects are found in the Arabic language. Moreover, we took advantage of the specificity of the Arabic orthographic system, which is characterized by a shallow (i.e.

The syntactic and semantic processing of mass and count nouns: an ERP study.

The present study addressed the question of whether count and mass nouns are differentially processed in the brain. In two different ERP (Event-Related Potentials) tasks we explored the semantic and syntactic levels of such distinction. Mass and count nouns typically differ in concreteness, hence the effect of this important variable was factorially examined in each task.

Numbers in the blind's "eye".

Background: Although lacking visual experience with numerosities, recent evidence shows that the blind perform similarly to sighted persons on numerical comparison or parity judgement tasks. In particular, on tasks presented in the auditory modality, the blind surprisingly show the same effect that appears in sighted persons, demonstrating that numbers are represented through a spatial code, i.e.

Neural correlates of Italian nominal compounds and potential impact of headedness effect: an ERP study.

An event-related potential (ERP) technique was used to investigate the way in which noun-noun compounds are processed during a lexical decision task with Italian speakers. Reaction times and error rates were higher for compounds than for noncompounds. ERP data showed a more negative peak in the left anterior negativity (LAN) component for compounds.

Sensory and cognitive processes of shifts of spatial attention induced by numbers: an ERP study.

The relationship between space and number has become a focus of intensive investigation (Hubbard et al., 2005; Walsh, 2003). The present paper aims to explore the nature of attentional shifts induced by the perception of irrelevant numbers as it was shown by Fischer et al.

Effects of aging on arithmetic problem-solving: an event-related brain potential study.

Younger and older participants were asked to indicate if 240 complex two-digit addition problems were smaller than 100 or not. Half of the problems were small-split problems (i.e.

Different brain mechanisms mediate two strategies in arithmetic: evidence from Event-Related brain Potentials.

Participants were asked to verify if complex additions were smaller than 100 or not. Two hundred and forty arithmetic problems were presented, with half the problems being small-split problems (i.e.