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Task performance while sleep deprived may be moderated by the controlled attention required by the task (Pilcher, Band, Odle-Dusseau, & Muth, 2007). This study examined the effects of 28 h of sleep deprivation on respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) during tasks with low and high controlled attention demands. The results showed that RSA increased throughout the night for both task types, but was consistently reduced during the low compared to high controlled attention tasks. The increase in RSA was linear for the high controlled attention tasks but curvilinear for the low ones. Hence, RSA followed a circadian pattern during the low controlled attention tasks but not the high ones. These results suggest that the effects of sleep deprivation on task performance may be moderated by parasympathetic activity and task type, and this has implications for task assignment during sustained operations that cause sleep deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the consumption of fruit and vegetables is a central component of improving population health. Reasons people give for choosing one food over another suggest health is of lower importance than taste. This study assesses the impact of using a simple descriptive label to highlight the taste as opposed to the health value of fruit on the likelihood of its selection. Participants (N=439) were randomly allocated to one of five groups that varied in the label added to an apple: apple; healthy apple; succulent apple; healthy and succulent apple; succulent and healthy apple. The primary outcome measure was selection of either an apple or a chocolate bar as a dessert. Measures of the perceived qualities of the apple (taste, health, value, quality, satiety) and of participant characteristics (restraint, belief that tasty foods are unhealthy, BMI) were also taken. When compared with apple selection without any descriptor (50%), the labels combining both health and taste descriptors significantly increased selection of the apple (’healthy & succulent’ 65.9% and ‘succulent & healthy’ 62.4%), while the use of a single descriptor had no impact on the rate of apple selection (‘healthy’ 50.5% and ‘succulent’ 52%). The strongest predictors of individual dessert choice were the taste score given to the apple, and the lack of belief that healthy foods are not tasty. Interventions that emphasize the taste attributes of healthier foods are likely to be more effective at achieving healthier diets than those emphasizing health alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The current standard for measuring cognitive workload is the NASA Task-load Index (TLX) questionnaire. Although this measure has a high degree of reliability, diagnosticity, and sensitivity, a reliable physiological measure of cognitive workload could provide a non-invasive, objective measure of workload that could be tracked in real or near real-time without interrupting the task. This study investigated changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) during seven different sub-sections of a proposed selection test for Navy aviation and compared them to changes reported on the NASA-TLX. 201 healthy participants performed the seven tasks of the Navy''s Performance Based Measure. RSA was measured during each task and the NASA-TLX was administered after each task. Multi-level modeling revealed that RSA significantly predicted NASA-TLX scores. A moderate within-subject correlation was also found between RSA and NASA TLX scores. The findings support the potential development of RSA as a real-time measure of cognitive workload. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Physiological compliance (PC) refers to the correlation between physiological measures of team members over time. The goals of this study were to examine ways of measuring PC in heart rate variability (HRV) data and the relationship between PC and team performance. Teams were tasked with entering both real and simulated rooms and “shooting” individuals with a weapon and identifying individuals without a weapon. The linear correlation and directional agreement PC methods were shown to be the most sensitive to differences in performance, with greater PC being associated with better performance. The correlation method when applied to a measure of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) revealed a significant difference between high and low performers (t[8]=−2.31, p =0.03) and the directional agreement applied to inter-beat-intervals and RSA revealed trend-level differences (t[4.62]=−1.86, p =0.06 and t[8]=−1.68, p =0.07). These results suggest that PC may have merit for predicting team performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]