Abstract
Introduction
Sustained vigilance is essential for safety in high-risk workplaces, making rapid and accessible alertness failure vulnerability assessments extremely desirable. We are piloting existing technology, the NeuroFlex® Platform, which takes ocular performance measurements of both prosaccade and antisaccade eye-movements using a portable Virtual Reality (VR) headset. We’ve conducted preliminary comparisons between these measures and Psychomotor Vigilance during extended wakefulness.
Methods
Sixteen young-adults (females= 8; age M= 25.13, SD= 4.30) completed five test batteries starting 1-hour post-wake where repeated testing encapsuled more than 24-hours of extended wakefulness. Each battery consisted of two 10-minute visual Psychomotor Vigilance Tasks, in addition to three administrations of 60-second prosaccade and antisaccade assessments using the NeuroFlex® VR platform.
Results
Time main effects occurred for reciprocal reaction time, F(3.83,57.37) = 20.54, p <.001, and proportions of lapses/trials, F(3.55,48.33) = 7.36, p <.001. Vigilance troughs occurred around the circadian nadir (19-hours post-wake) with some recovery at final administrations (25-hours post-wake). No associations were found between prosaccade latency and vigilance metrics. Moderate negative (r=-.63, p=.01 & r=-.54, p=.03) associations were found between antisaccade latency and reciprocal reaction time near the nadir, but not the number of lapses per trial.
Discussion
This preliminary analysis has demonstrated potential sensitivity of the NeuroFlex® platforms ocular measurements to vigilance. Though we have not detected associations between lapses and eye-movement latency, we were limited to the existing output generation of the NeuroFlex® platform in this preliminary investigation. With refined data analyses, we see promise in the NeuroFlex® platforms capability of predicting alertness failure.