Neuroergonomics: Harnessing the Power of Brain Science for HF/E

Cognition International Conference in 2005), editorial commentary identifying neuroergonomics as a “burning issue” for contemporary ergonomics (Marek & Pokorski, 2004), discussions of the scientific status (Sarter & Sarter, 2003) and societal implications of neuroergonomics (Hancock & Szalma, 2003), and popular descriptions of neuroergonomic research (Huff, 2004). The first
technical book devoted to the subject will appear next year (Parasuraman
& Rizzo, in press).

Neuroergonomics involves the intersection of two disciplines that have rarely communicated in the past: neuroscience and ergonomics. The relative neglect by ergonomists of human brain function is reasonable given that this discipline had its roots in behaviorist psychology. That neuroscience did not consider human
behavior in complex environments is also understandable given that the neural mechanisms of human cognitive functions have been identified only recently.

Neuroscientists are not standing still, however, as witnessed by calls to move neuroscience “beyond the bench” (Editorial, 2002), the rise of a neuroscience of social behavior (Caccioppo, 2002), and the development of neural prosthetics
for control of robots, home automation, and other technologies for physically disabled people (Musallam, Corneil, Greger, Scherberger, & Andersen, 2004; Mussa-Ivaldi & Miller, 2003).