Publikation

Preliminary Technical Test of Different Physiological Modalities to Detect Workload in Humans in Microgravity

Judith Bütefür; Elsa Andrea Kirchner (Hrsg.)

Proceedings of the 18th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSIGNALS-2025), February 20-22, Porto, Portugal, ISBN 978-989-758-731-3, k. A. 2025.

Zusammenfassung

In this work we aim to investigate whether eye tracking, electrocardiogram and respiration are good measures to detect workload (WL) of humans in microgravity. To this end, an auditory N-back study was performed during a parabolic flight in microgravity and during a control condition in the lab under Earth gravity by 3 operators of the experiment. The data were analysed regarding their predictive nature to estimate WL. The results show that none of the parameters are suitable for WL detection in humans due to the very short microgravity phases (~22s) and due to scopolamine intake. Nevertheless, some parameters are potentially suitable for longer stay in microgravity. In addition, the results of this study were compared with the results of a previously published electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis on the same data set. This comparison shows that EEG is a more promising predictor modality for WL. In future work, we will conduct another study to extend the number of operators. Different conditions than short term parabolic flights and measurement with longer duration are needed to investigate the stability of WL prediction.