Simulated car driving in fMRI--Cerebral activation patterns driving an unfamiliar and a familiar route.

Understanding the neuronal underpinnings of cognitive processes during car driving is essential to understanding the origin of automobile accidents. Using fMRI we aimed to reveal differences in activation distribution contrasting passively observing an unfamiliar versus a familiar route to analyse the importance of the degree of familiarity of a route on attention process. We developed a special driving simulation software known as "Mechanics & Traffic", which focuses on the physical properties of driving.