Abstract
Sensory feedback, which can be presented in different modalities – single and combined, aids task performance in human–robotic interaction (HRI). However, combining feedback modalities does not always lead to optimal performance. Indeed, it is not known how feedback modalities affect operator performance under stress. Furthermore, there is limited information on how feedback affects neural processes differently for males and females and under stress. This is a critical gap in the literature, particularly in the domain of surgical robotics, where surgeons are under challenging socio-technical environments that burden them physiologically. In the present study, we posited operator performance as the summation of task performance and neurophysiological cost of maintaining that performance. In a within-subject design, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to assess cerebral activations of 12 participants who underwent a 3D manipulation task within a virtual environment with concurrent feedback (visual and visual + haptic) in the presence and absence of a cognitive stressor. Cognitive stress was induced with the serial-7 subtraction test. We found that while task performance was higher with visual than visual + haptic feedback, it degraded under stress. The two feedback modalities were found to be associated with varying neural activities and neural efficiencies, and these were stress- and gender-dependent. Our findings engender further investigation into effectiveness of feedback modalities on males and females under stressful conditions in HRI.
Highlights
In human–robotic interactions (HRIs), operators require feedback on the current state of the process, or the status of the process being controlled by the robot (Wickens et al, 2015) to prevent mode confusion
The objectives of the present study were to determine if (1) different feedback modalities place distinct neural costs on users, and whether this is associated with maintenance or enhancement of task performance, and (2) neural efficiency of different feedbacks differ between males and females under stress
The primary task in the present study was akin to a guided motor task (Feygin et al, 2002; Sigrist et al, 2013) with concurrent feedback, in which task performance was measured in terms of tracking error, precision, and task completion state
Summary
In human–robotic interactions (HRIs), operators require feedback on the current state of the process, or the status of the process being controlled by the robot (Wickens et al, 2015) to prevent mode confusion. Feedback allows surgeons to safely maneuver and manipulate surgical tools, including robots, during surgical operations (Abiri et al, 2018; Miyazaki et al, 2019). Haptic feedback was shown to be ineffective in transferring surgical skills to medical students in a virtual simulated environment (Våpenstad et al, 2017) and failed to provide significant improvement in surgical performance (Van der Meijden and Schijven, 2009). Potential contributors to such inconsistencies may include variations between individuals in perceiving feedback effectiveness, their preferences, and the load the modalities place on different user groups
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