Abstract
Car driving is supported by perceptual, cognitive, and motor skills trained through continuous daily practice. One of the skills that characterize experienced drivers is to detect changes in the driving environment and then flexibly switch their driving modes in response to the changes. Previous functional neuroimaging studies on motor control investigated the mechanisms underlying behaviors adaptive to changes in control properties or parameters of experimental devices such as a computer mouse or a joystick. The switching of multiple internal models mainly engages adaptive behaviors and underlies the interplay between the cerebellum and frontoparietal network (FPN) regions as the neural process. However, it remains unclear whether the neural mechanisms identified in previous motor control studies also underlie practical driving behaviors. In the current study, we measure functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activities while participants control a realistic driving simulator inside the MRI scanner. Here, the accelerator sensitivity of a virtual car is abruptly changed, requiring participants to respond to this change flexibly to maintain stable driving. We first compare brain activities before and after the sensitivity change. As a result, sensorimotor areas, including the left cerebellum, increase their activities after the sensitivity change. Moreover, after the change, activity significantly increases in the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), parts of the FPN regions. By contrast, the posterior cingulate cortex, a part of the default mode network, deactivates after the sensitivity change. Our results suggest that the neural bases found in previous experimental studies can serve as the foundation of adaptive driving behaviors. At the same time, this study also highlights the unique contribution of non-motor regions to addressing the high cognitive demands of driving.
Highlights
A car is one of the most advanced devices humans operate in daily life
We investigated the brain regions recruited in car driving using functional magnetic resonance imaging
We explored the brain regions in which the activities responded to the change in the level of accelerator sensitivity according to the contrast of activity represented in Equation (1)
Summary
A car is one of the most advanced devices humans operate in daily life. people need to accumulate a certain amount of driving experience to acquire practical driving skill. Neural Basis During Car Driving experienced drivers can maintain their car’s movement at a constant speed regardless of running uphill or downhill, and they can keep their driving stable after their car suddenly encounters a slippery road surface. Such adaptive driving behaviors are supported by sophisticated computation in the brain. Knowledge of human motor control, which has been extensively studied in the fields of psychology and neuroscience, could play an important role in understanding the neural mechanism underlying adaptive driving behaviors (Lappi, 2015). A limited number of studies have investigated the neural basis for driving from the perspective of human motor control
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
