Preventing Friendly Fire: Connecting the Heart and Brain
When the United States Army sends soldiers into combat, those soldiers need to perform their jobs expertly under extremely stressful conditions. Some people, however, are more affected by the stress of combat than others, and a soldier’s reactions can mean the difference between life and death.
Derek Spangler, assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State, conducts research in collaboration with the United States Army to understand how measuring soldiers’ stress in real time can help make soldiers—and everyone else—safer and more effective at their jobs.
“Friendly fire—when soldiers shoot at their comrades or allies—is a human problem,” Spangler explained. “Why do people consider something to be a threat when that thing is completely safe? Our work helps the Army understand when soldiers are likely to make poor decisions.”
While this research project focused on military combat, Spangler emphasizes that threat assessments are something that people from all walks of life deal with every day.
“We all make threat assessments,” Spangler continued. “For example, people might avoid a social event because they are worried about making a mistake, but if they had attended, they could have made a new friend. Our research aims to identify when these threat assessments are likely to go poorly so that we can help people make better decisions.”
“
Why do people consider something to be a threat when that thing is completely safe? Our work helps the Army understand when soldiers are likely to make poor decisions.
– Derek Spangler
”
Author
Aaron
Wagner
Identifying which soldiers are likely to make a tragic mistake
Identifying the exact size of the problem is difficult, but two percent or more of combat deaths are attributed to friendly fire. To help eliminate these tragic deaths, Spangler and his collaborators identified a practical, inexpensive way to identify which soldiers are at risk of committing a friendly fire incident.
The researchers strap a commercially available, mobile electrocardiogram (ECG) device that costs around $100 to soldiers’ chests. The ECG provides real-time measurements of how fast each person’s heart is beating. By observing how the soldiers’ hearts responded to a simulated combat experience, the researchers identify which soldiers are most likely to engage in friendly fire. With this information, the identified soldiers can be trained to better manage their reactions to stress or perhaps even withheld from combat situations.
“The ECG device allows us to measure a person’s beat-to-beat heart rate variability,” said Spangler. “When we see certain changes in heart rate variability based on what a person is experiencing, that tells us that the brain is properly talking to the heart, alerting the heart of what threats are out there. If someone’s brain and heart are not properly communicating, they will make poor decisions.”
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Identifying when soldiers are likely to make a tragic mistake
In another study, Spangler and his collaborators used a virtual reality combat simulation to identify not only who is at risk of making a mistake, but under what conditions poor decision making is most likely to occur. With these data, the United States Army can identify when a soldier’s body-brain connection indicates that they are in danger of performing their job poorly, potentially putting others at risk or at least being ineffective.
In addition, the researchers are integrating other biological data, including measures of brain function through an electroencephalogram (EEG), to gain deeper and finer-grained insights into how different people respond to stress at different times and under different conditions. All of this can make soldiers safer and, eventually, it can make factory workers, fire fighters, and people working in many other occupations safer, too.
Through these simulated goggles, you can see actual video from a VR task that Spangler developed. Participants wore VR goggles and decided whether to shoot the figures who appeared. Friends are holding firearms across their bodies, while enemies are pointing firearms at you. The score in the background tracks correct and incorrect decisions.
Improving everyone’s ability to assess threats
On a fundamental level, the researchers are examining how, why, and when people make poor decisions in stressful situations. Due to social media and the 24-hour news cycle, most Americans are constantly bombarded with information that they must evaluate as threatening or safe.
“In some conditions, some people perceive safety as a threat,” said Spangler. “When that happens, they respond in ways—mentally and physically—that are inappropriate for the situation. And this is obviously bad if the outcome is that they shoot a fellow soldier. It is also bad if the result is that they label and reject family members as ‘enemies’ because those family members do not believe internet conspiracy theories. Additionally, the body responds to threats in ways that puts wear and tear on the body. Constantly thinking that you are threatened has physical costs along with the social and mental health costs.”
Even though combat is radically different than the mundane tasks of daily life, people use the same physiological and cognitive response systems in both situations. Understanding one’s own responses is important for maintaining relationships, mental health, and physical health.
Spangler’s eventual goal is not just to identify when people are at risk of heightened stress and poor decision-making, but to help create mobile technology that reduces that risk.
“We want to make our soldiers safe,” Spangler said. “This research can use wearable physiological sensors to help other people improve their performance at work, maintain their relationships, and enhance their health and quality of life. I am very excited about the possibilities.”
Researchers Nilanjan Banerjee and Ryan Robucci at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the United States Army Research Laboratory collaborated on this research.
Photo Credits
Top photo of soldier with VR goggles – Credit Getty Images (EvgeniyShkolenko)
VR Goggles – Credit Getty Images (AlexandrBognat)
Video within VR Goggles – Credit Derek Spangler
Author
Aaron Wagner
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