Neck Muscle Response to Changes in Helmet Loading Under +Gz Acceleration - Gender Differences.

摘要

Helmet-mounted devices (HMDs) can provide valuable assistance to the pilots of high performance aircraft. They allow operations to be accomplished in poor conditions and can improve effectiveness. However, each device changes the helmet configuration adding more weight and can change the center of gravity of the helmet. These factors are often implicated in reports of acute neck pain and cervical vertebral damage. Females, in particular, may be at risk for injury due to insufficient neck muscle strength to stabilize the neck under these loads. In this research, characteristics of the helmet configuration, along with +Gz acceleration, and task complexity are evaluated for their effect on human performance. Electromyography results showed that myoelectric activity of the neck muscles was most affected by the +Gz acceleration, whereas a helmet configuration effect was noticeable only for females. Other gender differences in myoelectric activity were also found. Females used as much as 80% of their maximal neck muscle capacity during performance of a task while males used 29% of their maximum. Approaching muscular limits might result in an inadequate muscular response to neck loading and the cervical area could be injured. In spite of this finding, tracking error of the females, although tending to be greater, was not significantly different from the error for males.