Investigating NIRS-measured cortical activation to detect the occurrence of attention deficits during a task of sustained attention

One well-known characteristic of sustained attention is a gradual decrease of attentional capacities across time. Such lapses in attention are usually investigated through a rise in reaction time (RT) and can provoke serious consequences in daily life as traffic accidents or work-related injuries. Given these potential impacts, some technologies have been proposed to detect lapses in attention and prevent accidents. We present here the possibility of exploiting NIRS-measured hemodynamics of the cerebral cortex and data mining methods to detect lapses in attention