Effects of Essential Oils on Human Cognition
K. Hüsnü Can Başer, Gerhard Buchbauer in Handbook of Essential Oils, 2020
A number of studies are available on the influence of fragrances on attentional functions. The integrity and the level of the processing efficiency of the attentional systems is a fundamental prerequisite of all higher cognitive functions. Attentional functions can be divided into four categories: alertness, selective attention, divided attention, and vigilance (Posner and Rafal 1987; Keller and Groemminger 1993; Sturm 1997). Alertness is the most basic form of attention and is intrinsically dependent on the general level of arousal. Selective attention describes the ability to focus on relevant stimulus information while non-relevant features are neglected; divided attention describes the ability to concomitantly process several stimuli from different sensory modalities. Vigilance refers to the sustainment of attention over longer time periods. Since the critical stimuli typically occur only rarely in time, vigilance can be seen as a counterforce against increasing fatigue in boring situations. Vigilance is crucial in everyday life, in situations like long-distance driving (particularly at night), working in assembly lines, or monitoring a radar screen (e.g., in air traffic control).
Caffeine and attention
B.S. Gupta, Uma Gupta in Caffeine and Behavior, 2020
In contrast to the study of selective attention, another area of attention research involves the study of long-term attentive behavior or vigilance, that is, of sustained attention. Sustained attention research is concerned with the ability to maintain attention and performance over prolonged, unbroken periods of time. Although a wide variety of tasks, such as tracking tasks, reaction-time tasks, and problem-solving tasks, have been used in laboratory studies on sustained attention, the vigilance task has been more widely used than any other. According to Jerison,27 the vigilance task can be seen “to provide a fundamental paradigm for defining sustained attention as a behavioral category.” In a vigilance task, the subject usually has to maintain attention on one or more sources of information in order to detect the occurrence of infrequent but critical signals. Two principal aspects of vigilance performance need be distinguished.28,29 One aspect is the overall level of vigilance performance, which is closely related to the general level of arousal. The second aspect is the decrement in vigilance performance over time, which may be seen as the hallmark of attention failure in these tasks. Much research effort has been devoted to the environmental and task factors that determine vigilance performance, and in particular to the factors that are responsible for its breakdown.28–30
Burns
Tor Wo Chiu in Stone’s Plastic Surgery Facts, 2018
Overall, the aim is to give the least amount of fluid required to maintain tissue perfusion and prevent burns shock, to minimise the dangers and complications of overresuscitation. Greater vigilance is required, as well as further studies into Better endpoints of resuscitation, e.g. invasive monitoring of cardiac output and/or tissue perfusionPharmacological manipulation, e.g. block/reduce oedema formation at capillary level, high-dose vitamin C (positive results in Japan have not been reproducible) or plasma exchange/plasmapheresis (to reduce cytokine levels)
A pre/post evaluation of fatigue, stress and vigilance amongst commercially licensed truck drivers performing a prolonged driving task
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2019
Michelle Cardoso, Fred Fulton, Jack P. Callaghan, Michel Johnson, Wayne J. Albert
Vigilance is the ability to sustain attention for prolonged periods of time. More specifically, sustained attention of vigilance is the ability to remain alert to stimuli and maintain attention for prolonged periods of time [10]. According to Dinges [17], a decrease in vigilance is strongly associated with sleepiness and fatigue [6]. Vigilance decrement consists of both the decline in accuracy of detection with the time on task and speed of signal detection [8]. Vigilance has a strong causal relationship with driving performance and sustained attention is necessary to operate a vehicle. During a vigil task, decrements start within the first 20–35 min in a laboratory setting. However, it was found that vigilance decrement patterns change depending on the characteristics of the signals and the nature of the task (i.e., training, experience and motivation) [8,18].
Providing a Safe Environment in a Psychiatric Ward: Nurses and Vigilance in Iran
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2018
Maryam Vahidi, Hossein Ebrahimi, Hossein Namdar Areshtanab, Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi, Sancia West, Andrew Foong, Michelle Cleary
Vigilance is a term with varied definitions with the most common being that of sustained attention to enable some form of cognitive performance or tonic alertness (Oken, Salinsky, & Elsas, 2006). In healthcare, vigilance refers to anticipation, watchfulness, and action in regard to staff observations in order to minimise risk and ensure safety for patients during their care (O'Brien, Andrews, & Savage, 2018). This term originates from an old French word “vigilia,” which means “the action or state of keeping a careful watch for possible risks or difficulties” (Oxford University Press, 2017). Vigilance is created in response to threats and is ultimately used to protect the patient (Kooken & Haase, 2014). It is a core aspect of nursing care provision, as illustrated by injured soldiers who referred to Florence Nightingale as “the lady with the lamp,” demonstrating their comfort at her vigilance as she moved watchfully around them (Meyer & Lavin, 2005).
Depth perception, dark adaptation, vigilance and accident proneness of Chinese coal mine workers
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2018
Mingming Deng, Alan H. S. Chan, Feng Wu, Linyan Sun
Vigilance refers to the ability of organisms to maintain their focus of attention and to remain alert to stimuli over prolonged periods of time.[19–22] Vigilance requires hard mental work [23] and is one of the important cognitive abilities for workers employed in complicated and stressful environments. Fu et al. [24] analyzed the change of cognitive functions of aviators suffering from sleep disorder and showed that good vigilance was exemplified by the handling of emergencies reasonably, timely and effectively. In the demanding and complicated environment of a coal mine, the miners need to maintain high vigilance in order to handle emergencies effectively and in timely fashion, and to reduce and prevent injury accidents. Individual differences in vigilance are common and are relevant to a variety of work environments, e.g. in industrial, transportation, medical and security settings.[25] No studies have been reported on the use of test methods, such as a measure of vigilance, to determine the cognitive abilities of coal miners. The present study investigated the vigilance of coal miners using an objective experimental method.
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