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. 2022 Feb 9:16:754379.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.754379. eCollection 2022.

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

Kentaro Oba  1 , Koji Hamada  2 , Azumi Tanabe-Ishibashi  1 , Fumihiko Murase  2 , Masaaki Hirose  2 , Ryuta Kawashima  1   3 , Motoaki Sugiura  1   3   4
Affiliations

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

Kentaro Oba et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .

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.

Keywords: driving safety; driving simulator; fMRI; frontoparietal control network; superior temporal sulcus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that this study received funding from DENSO CORPORATION. The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Driving simulator and emergency events. (A) While driving along a gently S-shaped road, participants were asked to control the car so that it was positioned in the center of the road as much as possible (driving accuracy) by pushing the left and right buttons of an MRI-compatible response button. They were also asked to perform braking responses to two types of emergency events: (B) deceleration of the vehicle ahead (the brake lights of the vehicle ahead would glow) and (C) a pedestrian moving from the sidewalk on the right or left toward the road (in this case, a man in a blue shirt is walking toward the road).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Frontoparietal control network and its positive correlation with TTLC. (A) The frontoparietal control network ROI (green) based on Gordon et al. (2016). (B) The result of hypothesis-based ROI analysis. Within the ROI, activity in the bilateral IPL and right MFG was positively correlated with TTLC, an index of driving accuracy (SVC; voxel-level threshold pFWE < 0.05). Arrows indicate significant voxels. Numbers in each axial section indicate the z coordinates in MNI space. (C) Exploratory whole-brain analysis showed significant positive correlations between activity in the right IPL and left MFG with TTLC (cluster-defining threshold: p < 0.001 uncorrected; cluster-extent threshold: pFWE < 0.05). Abbreviations: ROI, region of interest; TTLC, the time to line crossing; IPL, inferior parietal lobule; MFG, middle frontal gyrus; SVC, small-volume correction; FWE, family-wise error; MNI, Montreal Neurological Institute.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Brain activity negatively correlated with TTLC. Activity in wide-ranging bilateral cortical areas, especially the right sensorimotor cortex, was negatively correlated with TTLC (cluster-defining threshold: p < 0.001 uncorrected; cluster-extent threshold: pFWE < 0.05). Abbreviation: TTLC, the time to line crossing.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Brain activity associated with the braking response to a pedestrian crossing. Activity in the left pSTS and right aSTS preceding a pedestrian crossing was positively correlated with the RT for that event (cluster-defining threshold: p < 0.001 uncorrected; cluster-extent threshold: pFWE < 0.05). Abbreviations: pSTS, posterior superior temporal sulcus; aSTS, anterior superior temporal sulcus; RT, reaction time.
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