Physiological Indicators of Panic Cognition and Their Effects on Emergency Task Performance: Evidence From Virtual...

Area of Science:

• Psychophysiology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• Acute stress significantly impacts cognitive states and behavioral performance.
• Objective quantification of panic-related cognitive states is crucial for understanding emergency responses.
• Existing methods for assessing panic cognition lack objective physiological measures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify panic-related cognitive state using physiological indicators.
• To examine the effects of panic cognition on emergency behavioral performance under acute stress.
• To develop a novel Panic Cognition Index (PCI) for objective assessment.

Main Methods:

• 82 participants performed emergency response tasks in a virtual reality environment.
• Physiological data, including skin conductance level (SCL) and electroencephalography (EEG), were recorded.
• Principal component analysis constructed the Panic Cognition Index (PCI), and regression models analyzed its relationship with behavioral performance.

Main Results:

• Personality traits (Neuroticism, Openness, Extraversion) correlated with specific physiological measures (SCL, θ power, α power, β power).
• The developed Panic Cognition Index (PCI) explained 77.48% of the total physiological variance.
• PCI significantly predicted reaction time and demonstrated an inverted U-shaped relationship with walking efficiency, indicating optimal performance at a specific PCI value.

Conclusions:

• Physiological signals can objectively quantify panic-related cognitive states.
• The Panic Cognition Index (PCI) serves as a measurable indicator for assessing emergency performance.
• PCI has implications for occupational safety evaluations in high-stress environments.