High-Stakes Applications
High-stakes environments place exceptional demands on people, teams, and systems. In defence, aviation, healthcare, and other critical operations, performance is shaped not only by technical skill, but also by cognitive load, stress, fatigue, decision-making, and the way humans interact with increasingly complex technology. Advanced platforms and systems only deliver their full value when the human element can perform reliably under pressure.
At Rotgans Research, we apply neuroergonomics to make these hidden demands more visible. By measuring brain function in realistic training and operational contexts, we can identify where cognitive bottlenecks emerge, where training can be improved, where automation helps or hinders performance, and how teams function under pressure. This moves neuroscience out of the laboratory and into the environments where performance truly matters.
Our work in high-stakes applications is built around four practical methods: NeuroTargeted Training, AI needs identification, crew-level hyperscanning, and the Performance Benchmark Method. Together, these approaches help organizations improve training efficiency, evaluate human–machine interaction more objectively, strengthen team performance, and support better decisions about readiness, workload, and operational design.
NeuroTargeted Training
NeuroTargeted Training identifies individual training needs by revealing exactly where a trainee struggles cognitively during a simulator exercise or other complex task. Instead of treating the whole exercise as equally difficult, it shows which parts have already been mastered and which parts still create excessive mental effort or uncertainty. Training can then be directed only at those specific weak points.
This makes training more targeted, more efficient, and often faster. Progress can also be evaluated objectively: as brain activation patterns move closer to expert performance, this indicates that mastery is being achieved. In high-stakes environments, where organizations need to train more people in less time, NeuroTargeted Training offers a practical way to accelerate learning without lowering standards.
AI needs identification
AI should not be introduced simply because it is technically possible. The first question is where AI is genuinely needed. At Rotgans Research, we use neuroergonomic methods to identify the moments and tasks where operators or teams experience excessive cognitive strain. By measuring brain function during real or simulated operations, it becomes possible to see where mental demands approach human limits and where technological support may therefore be justified.
This provides a more informed basis for decisions about AI implementation. Rather than assuming that a task should be supported by AI, organizations can first determine where AI would meaningfully reduce cognitive burden, improve performance, or support safer operation. In this way, AI and automation needs identification helps ensure that technology is introduced where it truly adds value, rather than where it simply seems attractive in theory.
Crew-level hyperscanning
Modern operations depend on coordinated teams, not just capable individuals. Crew-level hyperscanning extends neuroergonomics from the individual to the team by examining how multiple operators respond during shared tasks, handovers, and coordinated decision-making. This helps reveal moments of synchrony, breakdown, overload, or misalignment that are difficult to capture with conventional observation alone.Â
Performance Benchmark Method
The Performance Benchmark Method establishes what expert performance looks like on the brain level. By scanning the brains of experts during a task, we can define the desired pattern of mental activity for that operational context.
Trainees or less experienced operators can then be compared against this benchmark. This shows how far they still are from the mental and cognitive state of an expert, providing an objective way to assess progress toward expertise. In combination with NeuroTargeted Training, this creates a more precise and efficient approach to modern training.
The NEURO NAVY project
