Biomagnetism: Possible New Predictor of Personnel Performance

The objective of this effort was to determine whether biomagnetic recordings may prove effective in predicting personnel performance. Two experiments were conducted. In the first, bioelectric data (e.g., event-related brain potentials) and sample biomagnetic data (e.g., event-related fields) obtaine...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lewis, Gregory W, Blackburn, Michael R
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
BIOELECTRICITY
BIOMAGNETISM
BRAIN
BRAIN WAVES
NAVAL PERSONNEL
PE62715H
PERFORMANCE(HUMAN)
PERSONNEL
Personnel Management and Labor Relations
PREDICTIONS
WAVEFORMS
WU98
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Summary:The objective of this effort was to determine whether biomagnetic recordings may prove effective in predicting personnel performance. Two experiments were conducted. In the first, bioelectric data (e.g., event-related brain potentials) and sample biomagnetic data (e.g., event-related fields) obtained from one individual were compared. Results suggest that biomagnetic recordings are more sensitive to biological activity localization than are bioelectric recordings. In the second experiment, multiple serial recordings of visually evoked magnetic fields were taken on five people to obtain waveform topographic maps from the occipital and parietal brain regions. Waveform reliability was determined by signal averaging techniques and by examination of characteristic changes in waveform shape over the maps in comparison to background magnetic noise. The visually evoked field was found to be a multiphasic waveform composed of a short period sinusoidal deflection after about 200 msec. The waveform was observed in both the occipital and parietal regions lateral to the midline. Phase reversals of major deflections occurred between the left and right hemispheres and between the occipital and parietal regions of the right but not left hemisphere. The reliability of the visually evoked field components between 100 and 200 msec. should be adequate for their further use as a predictor of performance.