A selective review of simulated driving studies: Combining naturalistic and hybrid paradigms, analysis approaches, and future directions

Abstract

Naturalistic paradigms such as movie watching or simulated driving that mimic closely real-world complex activities are becoming more widely used in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies both because of their ability to robustly stimulate brain connectivity and the availability of analysis methods which are able to capitalize on connectivity within and among intrinsic brain networks identified both during a task and in resting fMRI data. In this paper we review over a decade of work from our group and others on the use of simulated driving paradigms to study both the healthy brain as well as the effects of acute alcohol administration on functional connectivity during such paradigms. We briefly review our initial work focused on the configuration of the driving simulator and the analysis strategies. We then describe in more detail several recent studies from our group including a hybrid study examining distracted driving and compare resulting data with those from a separate visual oddball task. The analysis of these data were performed primarily using a combination of group independent component analysis (ICA) and the general linear model (GLM) and in the various studies we highlight novel findings which result from an analysis of either 1) within-network connectivity, 2) inter-network connectivity, also called functional network connectivity, or 3) the degree to which the modulation of the various intrinsic networks were associated with the alcohol administration and the task context. Despite the fact that the behavioral effects of alcohol intoxication are relatively well known, there is still much to discover on how acute alcohol exposure modulates brain function in a selective manner, associated with behavioral alterations. Through the above studies, we have learned more regarding the impact of acute alcohol intoxication on organization of the brain’s intrinsic connectivity networks during performance of a complex, real-world cognitive operation. Lessons learned from the above studies have broader applicability to designing ecologically valid, complex, functional MRI cognitive paradigms and incorporating pharmacologic challenges into such studies. Overall, the use of hybrid driving studies is a particularly promising area of neuroscience investigation.

Weekly and daily cycle of alcohol use among the U.S. general population

“…Experimental studies have demonstrated that increased blood alcohol concentration (BAC) impairs cognitive functioning such as motor control, judgement and alertness in a dose-dependent manner, and because alcohol is metabolized at a constant rate, the risk of injury is likely to be highest during the period before BAC level drops below the low risk level (e.g. legal limit for driving) [1][2][3]. Many emergency department studies and several meta-analyses have also concluded that exposure to alcohol substantially increases the risk of injury -particularly injuries occurring within 6 h of exposure to alcohol [4][5][6][7].…”

Applications of Virtual Reality Technology in Brain Imaging Studies

“…Together, these findings have demonstrated that virtual reality technology allows simulations of driving tasks that would be impractical, dangerous, unethical, or even impossible in real contexts and enables the measurement of brain function during simulated driving [60].…”

Study and Implementation of Advanced Neuroergonomic Techniques

“…In [5], the relatively new approach of using noninvasive brain stimulation technologies presented does not preclude the further investigation of applied science questions. Rather, brain stimulation for the sake of cognitive enhancement in "normal" subjects expands the domain, applicability, development, and understanding of traditional stimulation research.…”

“…According to [5,6], Naturalistic paradigms such as movie watching or simulated driving that mimic closely real-world complex activities are becoming more widely used in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies both because of their ability to robustly stimulate brain connectivity and the availability of analysis methods which are able to capitalize on connectivity within and among intrinsic brain networks identified both during a task and in resting fMRI data.…”