Neural Mechanisms as Putative Targets for Warfighter Resilience and Optimal Performance - Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense - page 51

5 Neural Mechanisms as

Putative Targets for
Warfighter Resilience
and Optimal Performance

Martin P. Paulus, Lori Haase, Douglas
C. Johnson, Alan N. Simmons, Eric G. Potterat,
Karl Van Orden, and Judith L. Swain

CONTENTS
Exposure to Extreme Environments, Performance, and Brain Functioning ............ 51
Resilience ................................................................................................................. 52
Interoception and its Neural Substrates: A Novel Approach to Resilience and
Stress Assessment .................................................................................................... 53
Optimal Performance: A Link to Efficient Interoceptive Processing ...................... 55
Reframing Resilience ............................................................................................... 57
References ................................................................................................................ 58

EXPOSURE TO EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS,
PERFORMANCE, AND BRAIN FUNCTIONING
Military deployment and, in particular, combat deployment (Smith et al. 2008) can
have profound effects on mental health (Thomas et al. 2010) and lead to increased
prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders (Larson et al. 2008) as well as alcohol and
substance use (Seal et al. 2011); subsequently, these effects negatively impact social
functioning and employability and result in increased utilization of health care ser-
vices (Hoge et al. 2006). However, much less understood and studied are the effects
of recovery from deployment stress as they relate to soldier's performance. Others
have stressed that there is a clear need for a quantitative approach to assess cogni-
tive functioning of soldiers exposed to high-stress environments, to provide early
detection of individual health and military performance impairments and manage-
ment of occupational and deployment health risks (Friedl et al. 2007). The need
for an objective assessment of performance is underscored by a recent study which
found that self-reported cognitive functioning was not correlated with objective cog-
nitive abilities. Instead, perceived cognitive deficits were associated with depression,

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