Momentary lapse of control: A cognitive continuum approach to understanding and mitigating perseveration in human error

View/ open
Author
Dehais, Frédéric
Hodgetts, Helen M.
Causse, Mickael
Behrend, Julia
Durantin, Gautier
Tremblay, Sébastien
Date
2019-03-14Acceptance date
2019-03-11
Type
Article
Publisher
Elsevier
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Everyday complex and stressful real-life situations can overwhelm the human brain to an extent that the person is no longer able to accurately evaluate the situation and persists in irrational actions or strategies. Safety analyses reveal that such perseverative behavior is exhibited by operators in many critical domains, which can lead to potentially fatal incidents. There are neuroimaging evidences of changes in healthy brain functioning when engaged in non-adaptive behaviors that are akin to executive deficits such as perseveration shown in patients with brain lesion. In this respect, we suggest a cognitive continuum whereby stressors can render the healthy brain temporarily impaired. We show that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is a key structure for executive and attentional control whereby any transient (stressors, neurostimulation) or permanent (lesion) impairment compromises adaptive behavior. Using this neuropsychological insight, we discuss solutions involving training, neurostimulation, and the design of cognitive countermeasures for mitigating perseveration.
Journal/conference proceeding
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews;
Citation
Dehais, F., Hodgetts, H.M., Causse, M., Behrend, J., Durantin, G. and Tremblay, S. (2019) 'Momentary lapse of control: A cognitive continuum approach to understanding and mitigating perseveration in human error', Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.006
Description
Article published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.006
Sponsorship
Cardiff Metropolitan University (Grant ID: Cardiff Metropolian (Internal))
AXA Research Fund through the Neuroergonomics For Safety Chair (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)
Discovery Grant (ISAE-SUPAERO)