Neural Correlates Predicting Lane-Keeping and Hazard Detection: An fMRI Study Featuring a Pedestrian-Rich Simulator Environment

Abstract

Distracted attention is considered responsible for most car accidents, and many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) researchers have addressed its neural correlates using a car-driving simulator. Previous studies, however, have not directly addressed safe driving performance and did not place pedestrians in the simulator environment. In this fMRI study, we simulated a pedestrian-rich environment to explore the neural correlates of three types of safe driving performance: accurate lane-keeping during driving (driving accuracy), the braking response to a preceding car, and the braking response to a crossing pedestrian. Activation of the bilateral frontoparietal control network predicted high driving accuracy. On the other hand, activation of the left posterior and right anterior superior temporal sulci preceding a sudden pedestrian crossing predicted a slow braking response. The results suggest the involvement of different cognitive processes in different components of driving safety: the facilitatory effect of maintained attention on driving accuracy and the distracting effect of social–cognitive processes on the braking response to pedestrians.

Non‐instinct detection of cellphone usage from lane‐keeping performance based on eXtreme gradient boosting and optimal sliding windows

“…Lane‐keeping performance can be quantified directly based on the measurement of lane position, such as the SDLP, number of lane excursions, and the standard deviation of lateral acceleration (SDLA). It was found to increase significantly with a secondary task and increase linearly as the duration of distraction increased [25–29]. However, driving experience and skills can produce individual differences.…”