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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neuroinform.
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fninf.2024.1409322

Cooperation objective evaluation in aviation: validation and comparison of two novel approaches in simulated environment

Provisionally accepted
Rossella Capotorto Rossella Capotorto 1Vincenzo Ronca Vincenzo Ronca 2Nicolina Sciaraffa Nicolina Sciaraffa 3Gianluca Borghini Gianluca Borghini 4Gianluca Di Flumeri Gianluca Di Flumeri 4*Lorenzo Mezzadri Lorenzo Mezzadri 5Alessia Vozzi Alessia Vozzi 6Andrea Giorgi Andrea Giorgi 1Daniele Germano Daniele Germano 2Fabio Babiloni Fabio Babiloni 7Pietro Aricò Pietro Aricò 2
  • 1 Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic & Orthopedic Sciences, Rome, Italy
  • 2 Department of Computer, Automatic and Management Engineering, Faculty of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Statistics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Lazio, Italy
  • 3 BrainSigns srl,Via Tirso,14, 00198 Rome,Italy, Rome, Italy
  • 4 Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Lazio, Italy
  • 5 Urbe Aero Flight Academy, Rome, Sicily, Italy
  • 6 BrainSigns, Rome, Lazio, Italy
  • 7 Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Lazio, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In operational environments, human interaction and cooperation between individuals are critical to efficiency and safety. These states are influenced by individuals’ cognitive and emotional states. Human Factor research aims to objectively quantify these states to prevent human error and maintain constant performances, particularly in high-risk settings like aviation, where human error and performances account for a significant portion of accidents. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate and validate two novel methods for assessing the degree of cooperation among professional pilots engaged in real-flight simulation tasks. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the ability of the proposed metrics to differentiate between the expertise levels of operating crews based on their levels of cooperation. Eight crews were involved in the experiments, consisting of four crews of Unexperienced pilots and four crews of Experienced pilots. An expert trainer, simulating air traffic management communication on one side and acting as a subject matter expert on the other, provided external evaluations of the pilots' mental states during the simulation. The two novel approaches introduced in this study were formulated based on Circular Correlation and Mutual Information techniques. The findings demonstrated the possibility of quantifying cooperation levels among pilots during realistic flight simulations. Additionally, cooperation levels were found to be significantly higher (p < 0.05) among Experienced pilots compared to Unexperienced ones. Furthermore, these preliminary results exhibited significant correlations (p < 0.05) with subjective and behavioral measures collected every 30 seconds during the task, confirming their reliability.

    Keywords: Approach-withdrawal, cooperation, mutual information, Circular correlation, Electroencephalography, human factors, Mental Workload, Neurophysiological

    Received: 17 Apr 2024; Accepted: 23 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Capotorto, Ronca, Sciaraffa, Borghini, Di Flumeri, Mezzadri, Vozzi, Giorgi, Germano, Babiloni and Aricò. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Gianluca Di Flumeri, Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, 00185, Lazio, Italy

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.