Neuroergonomics: Opportunities and challenges of merging cognitive neuroscience with cognitive ergonomics

As with any merger of previously unrelated scientific disciplines, the usefulness of combining cognitive neuroscience and cognitive ergonomics to create the new field of 'neuroergonomics' depends on the significance of the research subjects that could not be addressed if the two fields remained separated. Situations characterized by a scarcity of overt operator behaviour and performance represent one driving force for combining the two fields. In those situations, neurobiological indices of cognitive processes and capacities may emerge as the main, or even exclusive, source of information about the operator's cognitive status and activities. This information is needed, for example, to support adaptive aiding and dynamic function allocation in the context of human-automation cooperation. The utilization of research approaches and measurements more typical of cognitive neuroscience will benefit the field of cognitive ergonomics to the extent that multidimensional psychological constructs (such as situation awareness and mental workload) are reduced to their underlying cognitive operations which are more isomorphic with activity changes in brain regions, circuits and distributed neuronal systems. The transformation of these constructs and paradigms will, in turn, enable cognitive ergonomics to contribute to progress in the field of cognitive neuroscience.

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