Neurotechnology and Operational Medicine - Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense - page 71

casualty clearance from an disaster scene (Wu et al. 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2008a,
2008b, 2012). This hybrid simulation architecture integrates an operations research
simulation engine, a rules-based agent simulation, geographical information system
(GIS) infrastructure data, graphical interfaces, and disaster information databases.
In addition to standard simulations, the architecture has been used for evolutionary
decision-making and frugal multicriterion optimization by constraining the heuris-
tic search with a meta-modeling approach, nonlinear mixed integer programming
(Wu et al. 2008b). A key feature of this architecture is the explicit definition of situa-
tion awareness as the set of active hypotheses that is consistent with both the history
of implemented rules (plans) and contextual information from the data base (Balaban
et al. 2012). This definition allows us to track the convergence of situation awareness
to a small set of cause(s) and optimize the performance of agents to preserve options
and improve resilience. These results can easily be extended to implement a neuro-
technology approach to situation awareness in a hybrid simulation platform.
NEUROTECHNOLOGY PLATFORM FOR SITUATION
AWARENESS: IMPLICIT HUMAN-MACHINE INTERFACES
Because simulation components are linked to findings and models related to brain
activity, the neurotechnology approach to situation awareness is amenable to
both experimental validation and to the future integration of validated real-time
physiological measurements into a human-computer system. For example, the neu-
roscientific literature on interoception and emotional control (Craig 2009; Phillips
et al. 2003) provides a theoretical basis for using methods such as near-infrared
spectroscopy to identify vascular perfusion changes that are related to activity of the
anterior insula (interoception), ventral prefrontal-orbitofrontal cortex (production of
affective state) and dorsal prefrontal cortex (effortful regulation of affective state)
during the situation assessment process. The sensorimotor components, on the other
hand, are monitored by actions. The process of integrating these measures with sim-
ulation provides a roadmap for intermeshing physiological sensor, human response,
and simulation features in the development of human-computer systems that achieve
a high fidelity representation of an individual's situation assessment processes.
SOME OPERATIONAL APPLICATIONS FOR DEFENSE
AND INTELLIGENCE
The previous sections have presented an academic background for using a
neurotechnology-based hybrid simulation approach for modeling the instantaneous
situation awareness of individuals and groups of individuals in an operational medi-
cine response scenario. This section will discuss several examples of its applications
to specific problem domains. It is not meant to be exhaustive; rather, it is designed to
encourage inductive thinking about the broad scope of potential applications for the
defense and intelligence communities.
Predicting help-seeking behavior. The help-seeking behavior of victims, the
public at large, and the response community is an important consideration during
an unfolding medical response scenario (Alexander and Klein 2006). Help-seeking