System immersion of a driving simulator affects the oscillatory brain activity

Figalová, Nikol; Pichen, Jürgen; L Chuang, Lewis; Baumann, Martin; Pollatos, Olga · 2022 · Crossref

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001825

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

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Summary

This study investigates how the system immersion of a driving simulator influences the oscillatory brain activity of drivers operating a conditionally automated vehicle. With the rise of vehicle automation, reliable simulators are essential for research, yet low-fidelity environments may fail to reproduce realistic driver behavior. The authors aim to identify objective neural correlates of system immersion—defined as the technological properties of the simulation environment—using electroencephalography (EEG), addressing a gap in literature where previous studies relied on subjective self-reports or focused on non-driving contexts. The researchers employed a between-group experimental design with 19 participants divided into high-immersion (HI) and low-immersion (LI) groups. The HI group used a fixed-base simulator with a 190-degree field of view and a realistic car mock-up, while the LI group used the same simulator with peripheral screens disabled. Participants drove for approximately 40 minutes across four scenarios involving a level 3 automated vehicle, performing a secondary visual search task during autonomous phases and responding to ten auditory takeover requests. EEG data were recorded using 32 electrodes, focusing on frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal regions. Data were processed to calculate relative spectral power density in Theta, Alpha, Beta, low-Beta, and high-Beta bandwidths. Statistical analysis included Mann-Whitney U tests for group differences and mixed ANOVAs with Bayesian statistics to assess changes over time. The results revealed no significant differences between the HI and LI groups in Theta, Alpha, or low-Beta bandwidths. However, significant effects of system immersion were found in the Beta bandwidth at the Cz electrode and, predominantly, in the high-Beta bandwidth across occipital (Oz, O2) and parietal (P3, P8) regions, with higher power observed in the HI group. Analysis of changes over the four driving scenarios showed an increase in Alpha power over time, attributed to the time-on-task effect, but no significant group or interaction effects. Bayesian analysis provided moderate to strong evidence against group effects in Theta, Alpha, and low-Beta bands, reinforcing the specificity of the high-Beta findings. The study concludes that system immersion significantly modulates drivers' physiological arousal, as indicated by increased high-Beta activity in occipital and parietal areas. This suggests that higher-fidelity simulators induce greater arousal, which may subsequently influence cognitive and emotional processes, stress perception, and presence. These findings provide empirical evidence for using EEG as an objective measure of immersion in driving simulation research, highlighting the importance of simulator fidelity in ensuring valid and reproducible outcomes for automated vehicle studies.

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• neuro workload indices

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• Empirical Findings: physiological data
• Methodological Resource: tool software, validation psychometrics