Eye movement measures were used to detect sleepiness and further distinguish sleep-related impairment from that due to alcohol or brain injury. Sleep loss is linked to poor judgment and therefore, dangerous consequences in certain professions.
Just as it is possible to detect alcohol consumption, NASA has now developed a test to detect sleep loss in people by looking at a variety of components of human eye movements.
Effect of Acute Sleep Loss on Women’s Working Memory
Acute sleep loss impairs working memory in a sex-dependent manner, finds new study.
Advertisement
‘NASA develops a new tool to detect sleepiness and also distinguish it from other factors such as alcohol use by using easily-obtainable eye-movement measures.’
Read More..
Tweet it Now
Read More..
As sleep loss is linked to poor judgement and therefore dangerous consequences, this test can have important implications for individuals who work in jobs requiring vigilant monitoring and precise motor action, such as military personnel, surgeons and truck drivers.
For example, if a surgeon comes to the operation theatre without getting adequate sleep, the test may indicate that he/she must first get some rest to do the job properly.
![New Algorithm Determines Ideal Caffeine Dosage to Counter Sleep Loss]( "New Algorithm Determines Ideal Caffeine Dosage to Counter Sleep Loss")
A newly developed algorithm may be the key to optimizing alertness with caffeine.
"By looking at a wide variety of components of human eye movements, we could not only detect sleepiness but also distinguish it from other factors, such as alcohol use or brain injury, that we have previously shown cause subtly different deficits in eye movements," said study senior author Lee Stone from NASA Ames Research Center in in Mountain View, California.
The study, published in the The Journal of Physiology, found that a set of easily-obtainable eye-movement measures could be used to provide a sensitive and reliable tool to detect small neural deficits.
Importantly, these measures could even be used to distinguish sleep-related impairment from that due to alcohol or brain injury.
To establish a baseline, the research team had a group of participants experience two weeks with a regular 8.5 hours per night sleep schedule and abstain from any alcohol, drugs or caffeine so that they were sure they started the experiment completely well-rested with no sleep debt or disruptions.
They then had the participants spend up to 28 hours awake in the Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory at NASA Ames, where they tested them periodically throughout the day and night to monitor how their visual and eye-movement performance changed throughout the day-night cycle.
By using eye movement research techniques, they were able to generate reliable effects showing trends of increasing impairment throughout the night for components of motion perception, such as smooth, continuous tracking eye movements and effects on the small, episodic, jumping corrective eye movements.
The researchers found that when participants were asked to track stimuli with unpredictable onset, direction, speed and starting location, human eye movements were dramatically impaired.
"There are significant safety ramifications for workers who may be performing tasks that require precise visual coordination of one's actions when sleep deprived or during night shifts," Stone said.
Source: IANS
New Algorithm Determines Ideal Caffeine Dosage to Counter Sleep Loss
A newly developed algorithm may be the key to optimizing alertness with caffeine.
Advertisement
"By looking at a wide variety of components of human eye movements, we could not only detect sleepiness but also distinguish it from other factors, such as alcohol use or brain injury, that we have previously shown cause subtly different deficits in eye movements," said study senior author Lee Stone from NASA Ames Research Center in in Mountain View, California.
The study, published in the The Journal of Physiology, found that a set of easily-obtainable eye-movement measures could be used to provide a sensitive and reliable tool to detect small neural deficits.
Importantly, these measures could even be used to distinguish sleep-related impairment from that due to alcohol or brain injury.
To establish a baseline, the research team had a group of participants experience two weeks with a regular 8.5 hours per night sleep schedule and abstain from any alcohol, drugs or caffeine so that they were sure they started the experiment completely well-rested with no sleep debt or disruptions.
They then had the participants spend up to 28 hours awake in the Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory at NASA Ames, where they tested them periodically throughout the day and night to monitor how their visual and eye-movement performance changed throughout the day-night cycle.
By using eye movement research techniques, they were able to generate reliable effects showing trends of increasing impairment throughout the night for components of motion perception, such as smooth, continuous tracking eye movements and effects on the small, episodic, jumping corrective eye movements.
The researchers found that when participants were asked to track stimuli with unpredictable onset, direction, speed and starting location, human eye movements were dramatically impaired.
"There are significant safety ramifications for workers who may be performing tasks that require precise visual coordination of one's actions when sleep deprived or during night shifts," Stone said.
Source: IANS
Sleep Loss Linked With Nighttime Snacking, Junk Food Cravings
New study links sleep loss with nighttime snacking, junk food cravings, obesity and diabetes.
Advertisement
 Sleep Loss Alters the Gut Microbiota in HumansChanges in the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota have been associated with diseases such as obesity and type-2 diabetes in humans. | Advertisement
|
Advertisement
Recommended Reading
Latest Research News
Brain plasticity following blindness leads to superior ability in sensing signals from the heart, which has implications for bodily awareness and emotional processing.
A group of scientists were awarded £1.3 million to create a new “point of care testing” kit that detects Alzheimer's disease biomarkers.
Is there a connection between Osteoporosis and dementia? Yes, loss in bone density may be linked to an increased risk of dementia in older age.
Link between chromosome length and biological aging marker discovered. The finding helps explain why people with longer telomeres have a lower dementia risk.
Integrated structural biology helps discover how the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) works.