Dynamic Brain Function Tracking During Cognitive Tasks in Extreme Environments Using fNIRS

In special environments such as isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) spaces, optimizing the human-computer interaction (HCI) experience and accurately assessing the cognitive state of users is important. In this study, portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to monitor the changes in users’ brain activities while they performed three cognitive tasks: Stroop, Vigilance, and Reverse. The study aimed to evaluate the effects of different tasks on users’ cognitive load and provide a basis for the design optimization of HCI systems in special environments. The results demonstrate that regional brain activation shows the greatest feature importance between resting and task states, reflecting the users’ cognitive processing, while functional connectivity networks show higher stability across tasks and play a key role in state recognition. This discovery lays the groundwork for developing intelligent systems capable of real-time sensing and optimizing interactions, guiding the optimization of HCI systems in special environments.