Quantitative Physiological Assessment of Stress Via Altered Immune Functioning Following Interaction With Differing Automotive Interface Technologies

Abstract

Technology can enhance or diminish a user's psycho-physiological stress level; the ability to quantify these responses can help evaluate and refine design. The capability of drivers to accomplish basic tasks utilizing differing sensory modalities while maintaining lane discipline within a computer-simulated environment was assessed. Fifteen healthy subjects provided capillary blood samples before and after using three human-machine interface designs-touch-screen, voice control, and multimodal. Using a chemiluminescent technique termed Leukocyte Coping Capacity, the ability of leukocytes to produce reactive oxygen species in vitro was assessed. Significant poststressor changes in leukocyte activity of varying magnitude were observed following the use of all interfaces; with the multimodal interface provoking the most pronounced response and voice control the least. Although still requiring further research, the results support the proposition for using immune responsiveness as a means for quantifying psychological stress during assessment of ergonomic design and psycho-physiological and social interaction. This research was sponsored by Jaguar Cars Limited, Engineering Centre, Whitley, Coventry, United Kingdom. This work formed part of a PhD program of research. The PhD studentship was sponsored by financial assistance, the supply of test vehicles, and other specialist equipment including driving simulation technology by Jaguar and Land Rover Research and Development, Jaguar Cars Limited. The sole request of the sponsor was for the research team to design a simulator-based study incorporating production test vehicles for the purpose of testing and investigating the ability of the Leukocyte Coping Capacity protocol and other physiological parameters to act as a means for objectively quantifying changes in stress level following interaction with human-machine interfaces of differing ergonomic design.

A Framework for Analysing Driver Interactions with Semi-Autonomous Vehicles

“…Most of the work done so far in this area has addressed such challenges in isolation and at a high abstract level [28,12,30,8], has studied vehicle sensor data [37], driver feedback [17,20,36,24,38,14] (in a real or simulated environment) or performed physiological assessments [31,32]. The latter two strands of work entirely focusses on driver perception and experience; moreover borrowing from separate traditions of cognitive and physiological science.…”

Radical health: ecological corollaries of body condition, transport stress and season on plasma antioxidant capacity in the European badger

“…Measuring stress in wild animals has both academic and practical relevance; however, it is an under‐developed arena (see McLaren, Bonacic & Rowan, 2007; Shelton‐Rayner et al , 2010). Conservation interventions such as animal trapping, restraint and handling (Zhou et al , 1999; Laugero & Moberg, 2000; Bonacic & Macdonald, 2003; Bonacic, Macdonald & Villouta, 2003; McLaren et al , 2004), translocation and radio‐collaring (Tuyttens, Macdonald & Roddam, 2002) and species management programmes (Bateson & Bradshaw, 1997) all have an impact on their subjects; and it is essential that biologists recognize these stresses and their capacity to induce immuno‐suppression (see Cook et al , 2000; Moberg, 2000; Montes et al , 2003; Dawkins, 2004; Gelling et al , 2010).…”

“…Stress‐induced immune changes are therefore important in determining the consequences of a stressor, and observed immuno‐suppression in wild subjects can be used as a targeted measure of the costs of stress (see Monaghan et al , 2009). One such approach has been based on the stress‐induced production of ROS in leucocytes; the leucocyte coping capacity, or ‘LCC’ test (Montes et al , 2003), which monitors the multifaceted effects of stress using the body's leucocytes (primarily, but not exclusively, neutrophils) as bioindicators (McLaren et al , 2003; Gelling et al , 2010; Shelton‐Rayner et al , 2010).…”

“…Leucocytes can modify their free radical production in response to environmental changes, and the ability of leucocytes to produce free radicals thus provides an index of immune response to these changes (McLaren et al , 2003; Montes et al , 2003, 2004; Shelton‐Rayner et al , 2010).…”

“…Measuring stress in wild animals has both academic and practical relevance; however, it is an under-developed arena (see McLaren, Bonacic & Rowan, 2007;Shelton-Rayner et al, 2010). Conservation interventions such as animal trapping, restraint and handling (Zhou et al, 1999;Laugero it is essential that biologists recognize these stresses and their capacity to induce immuno-suppression (see Cook et al, 2000;Moberg, 2000;Montes et al, 2003;Dawkins, 2004;Gelling et al, 2010).…”