Can neuroscience support future Air Traffic Management?

The International Airport Review published an article by our collaborators Paola Tomasello, Stefano Bonelli and Vera Ferraiuolo about three ways neuroscience can support the development of Air Traffic Management (ATM) in the future. As the role of air traffic controllers shifts to a more observatory one, does neuroscience hold the key to ensuring this change doesn’t affect air traffic flows?
Neurosciences can help us understand the changes in working methods induced by the introduction of new technologies. Such technologies don’t mean to replace the human being, but rather to change the way humans perform their tasks. We need, therefore, to understand which is the best way to implement a cooperative relationship between the machine and the human being, and what new skills the operators need to develop in order to foster this relationship. This article focuses, in particular, on two studies (the NINA and STRESS projects) in which we used neurophysiological indicators to observe how the automation of some tasks affects the levels of mental workload, stress and attention of air traffic controllers, leading to the development of a neurometrics toolbox able to monitor stress, attention, vigilance, workload and training level.