Combined effects of time-of-day and simulated military operational stress on perception-action coupling performance

ABSTRACT

Perception-action coupling, the ability to ‘read and react’ to the environment, is essential for military personnel to operate within complex and unpredictable environments. Exposure to military operational stressors (e.g., caloric restriction, sleep loss, physical exertion), including around-the-clock operations, may compromise perception-action coupling, thereby impacting performance and safety. We examined the combined effects of simulated military operational stress (SMOS) and time-of-day on perception-action coupling. Fifty-seven active duty and reservist military personnel (45 M; 26.4 ± 5.6 years) completed a 5-day SMOS protocol that included two consecutive days of caloric restriction, and sleep restriction, and disruption. Participants completed a tablet-based perception-action coupling task (PACT) that involves perceiving whether virtual balls fit through virtual apertures. Familiarization occurred on day 0. Eight trials across day 1 (18:00, 22:00), 2 (04:00, 18:00, 22:00) and 3 (04:00, 18:00, 22:00) were analyzed. Mixed models were run to examine the interactive and main effects of day, and time-of-day on PACT response speed and accuracy outcomes. PACT response speed and accuracy outcomes improved at 18:00 and 22:00, whereas performance at 04:00 deteriorated across days. Perception-action coupling performance was resilient to SMOS, except in the early morning when the circadian drive for sleep is high, and the effects of sleep loss are more prominent.

KEYWORDS:

• Sleep restriction
• military
• visuomotor performance
• sensorimotor
• affordance
• partial sleep deprivation
• reaction time

Acknowledgements

Policies for protection of human subjects as prescribed in AR 70–25 and the Declaration of Helsinki were followed. All study protocols were approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board and by the Department of Defense Human Research Protection Office. Manuscript has been reviewed and approved by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Assertions and opinions contained herein do not reflect the official opinions or views of the Department of Defense or Department of the Army. The authors would like to thank all study participants and study staff at the Military Sleep Tactics and Resilience Research Team, Neuromuscular Research Lab and Sleep and Behavioral Neuroscience Center at the University of Pittsburgh

Disclosure statement

AG is CEO and owns equity in Noctem LLC. This work does not impact the work presented here. All other authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Data availability statement

Data available upon reasonable request

Additional information

Funding

Work was supported by Department of Defense [#W81XWH-17-2-0070] and training was supported by National Institute of Health [T32 HL082610].