Abstract
The prefrontal cortex is considered to have a significant effect on driving behavior, but little is known about prefrontal cortex function in actual road driving. Driving simulation experiments are not the same, because the subject is in a stationary state, and the results may be different. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is advantageous in that it can measure cerebral hemodynamic responses in a person driving an actual vehicle. We mounted fNIRS equipment in a vehicle to evaluate brain functions related to various actual driving operations while the subjects drove on a section of an expressway that was not yet open to the public. Measurements were recorded while parked, and during acceleration, constant velocity driving (CVD), deceleration, and U-turns, in the daytime and at night. Changes in cerebral oxygen exchange (ΔCOE) and cerebral blood volume were calculated and imaged for each part of the task. Responses from the prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex were highly reproducible in the daytime and nighttime experiments. Significant increases in ΔCOE were observed in the frontal eye field (FEF), which has not been mentioned much in previous simulation experiments. In particular, significant activation was detected during acceleration in the right FEF, and during deceleration in the left FEF. Weaker responses during CVD suggest that FEF function was increased during changes in vehicle speed. As the FEF contributes to control of eye movement in three-dimensional space, FEF activation may be important in actual road driving. fNIRS is a powerful technique for investigating brain activation outdoors, and it proved to be sufficiently robust for use in an actual highway driving experiment in the field of intelligent transport systems (ITS).
Highlights
Driving a vehicle requires use of the higher brain functions such as planning, decision-making, and visual attention, for basic driving operations as well as driving safety
We were able to measure brain activation during actual driving on an expressway using a multichannel Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system mounted in a vehicle, where we found that the activated areas varied according to the driving operation
A previous fNIRS study investigated actual driving at 30–50 km/h using two channels (NIRO-300) (Harada et al, 2007), but only two sites were measured in the frontal cortex, and localization in the frontal cortex was not clearly shown
Summary
Driving a vehicle requires use of the higher brain functions such as planning, decision-making, and visual attention, for basic driving operations as well as driving safety. According to a public report in Japan (National Public Safety Commission and National Police Agency, 2013), the number of traffic accidents and resulting injuries has declined in the past few years on ordinary roads, but it has increased on expressways Under these circumstances, from the point of view of organizations responsible for highway construction, lighting, signage, and the like, one goal of a study of this kind is the potential development of an evaluation system capable of examining physiologically the effects on the brain of highway design, and identifying ways to improve the ease of driving and highway safety. Technical problems remained in experiments where the simulation environment included a pedal and a steering wheel (Calhoun and Pearlson, 2012; Schweizer et al, 2013); namely, the human subjects were in a supine position, while the fields of view and depth from the driver’s seat were smaller than during actual driving
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