Cognitive incapacitation: theoretical and methodological considerations
Résumé
In aeronautics, cognitive incapacitation is recognized as a
contributing factor in several aircraft accidents, according to the
office of technical investigations of civil aviation accidents and
incidents (BEA). Cognitive incapacitation is a state during which an
individual’s cognitive abilities are temporarily impaired, due, for
example, to mental overload, cognitive fatigue, or important stress
(Dehais et al., 2019; 2020). Initially introduced and defined by
Jerome Lederer (see Orlady, 1984), cognitive incapacitation is a
subclass of all-causes incapacitation that can occur to a pilot,
temporarily or permanently, partially or completely, and whose
origins can be physiological or psychological. Cognitive incapacitation
is a well-identified operational concept, but it can be consecutive to
numerous phenomena, such as cognitive (over)load, stress, and mental
fatigue, leading to inefficient, inappropriate or dangerous behaviors
involving action or inaction, associated with failures of control,
comprehension, perception, or judgment. As such, its theoretical
delimitation and its operational definition deserve to be clarified. In the
first part of this talk, we will briefly review the current literature
concerning this phenomenon and how it relates to the broader field of
mental fatigue. Early detecting and preventing this phenomenon of
cognitive incapacitation is crucial for the selection and training of pilots
and for general safety. Few studies have specifically examined this
question using psychophysiological markers to early detect and better
understand it. In the second part of this talk, we will present the most
used behavioral and physiological correlates investigated so far,
monitoring brain activity (EEG, fNIRS), ocular activity (eye-tracking)
and cardiac activity (ECG). Finally, we will discuss the difficulty to
investigate this phenomenon in the laboratory and the promises and
limits of integrating all the above mentioned tools into a multimodal
approach to better detect and capture cognitive incapacitation.