Auditory neural correlates and neuroergonomics of driving assistance in a simulated virtual environment.

Driver assistance systems play an increasingly important role in modern vehicles. In the current level of technology, the driver must continuously supervise the driving and intervene whenever necessary when using driving assistance systems. The driver's attentiveness plays an important role in this human-machine interaction.

Knowing what's coming: Anticipatory audio cues can mitigate motion sickness.

Being able to anticipate upcoming motion is known to potentially mitigate sickness resulting from provocative motion. We investigated whether auditory cues could increase anticipation and subsequently reduce motion sickness. Participants (N = 20) were exposed on a sled on a rail track to two 15-min conditions.

Knowing What's Coming: Unpredictable Motion Causes More Motion Sickness.

Objective: This study explores the role of anticipation in motion sickness. We compared three conditions varying in motion predictability and assessed the effect of anticipation on subsequent illness ratings using a within-subjects design.

Background: Anticipation is thought to play a role in motion sickness by reducing the discrepancy between sensed and expected sensory information.

The role of self-regulation in the context of driver distraction: A simulator study.

Objective: There is considerable evidence for the negative effects of driver distraction on road safety. In many experimental studies, drivers have been primarily viewed as passive receivers of distraction. Thus, there is a lack of research on the mediating role of their self-regulatory behavior.

EEG alpha spindle measures as indicators of driver fatigue under real traffic conditions.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to show the effectiveness of EEG alpha spindles, defined by short narrowband bursts in the alpha band, as an objective measure for assessing driver fatigue under real driving conditions.

Methods: An algorithm for the identification of alpha spindles is described. The performance of the algorithm is tested based on simulated data.

Drivers' misjudgement of vigilance state during prolonged monotonous daytime driving.

To investigate the effects of monotonous daytime driving on vigilance state and particularly the ability to judge this state, a real road driving study was conducted. To objectively assess vigilance state, performance (auditory reaction time) and physiological measures (EEG: alpha spindle rate, P3 amplitude; ECG: heart rate) were recorded continuously. Drivers judged sleepiness, attention to the driving task and monotony retrospectively every 20 min.