Citation

Oba K, Hamada K, Tanabe-Ishibashi A, Murase F, Hirose M, Kawashima R, Sugiura M. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 2022; 16: e754379.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fnhum.2022.754379

PMID

35221953

PMCID

PMC8864087

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.

Language: en

Keywords

fMRI; driving simulator; driving safety; frontoparietal control network; superior temporal sulcus