Rapid Evaluation of Attention for DutY

• U.S. Department of Defense

• Uniformed Services University

• Brain Trauma Foundation

• US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine

• MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Currently, no rapid, reliable and objective assessment of of injury risk exists at the military operational, tactical or strategic levels

Problem to be studied: Poor cognitive readiness increases risk of injuries, including Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), and degrades operational and training performance. There is currently no standard for evaluating military cognitive readiness. The Warfighter Brain Health Strategy and Action Plan states that “the capacity for early identification and mitigation of potential hazardous exposures to brain health, especially for the risk of TBI, should lead to the reduction of injury and long-term and late effects in a warfighter’s life.”

We propose to develop a robust, field-ready assessment tool that accurately measures a Warfighter’s cognitive readiness, to reduce injury risk and optimize performance of mission critical skills.

Military Impact: Warfighters face numerous, constantly evolving threats to brain health, each with the potential to impair performance of military critical tasks, diminish mission effectiveness, erode the availability of deployable forces, and leave lasting imprints on functional health long after the Warfighter has left military service. Ensuring the availability of robust tools that support unobtrusive monitoring of Warfighter’s cognitive readiness state is essential for providing military leaders with reliable, objective data to inform mission planning, pinpoint training objectives, and support readiness assessment and training.