The impact of mind wandering on physiological measures in delegated driving

Mazeres, Florence; Fort, Alexandra; Lavril, Yannick; Tattegrain, Hélène; Jallais, Christophe · 2025 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1186/s12544-025-00741-w

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Summary

This study investigates the physiological signatures of mind wandering during delegated driving, a scenario where drivers supervise partially autonomous vehicles. Mind wandering is a significant contributor to road accidents, particularly in automated driving contexts where passive supervision can lead to attentional under-activation and impaired readiness for takeover requests. While behavioral and ocular indicators of mind wandering have been explored, this research addresses a gap in understanding how autonomic nervous system activity—specifically cardiac and electrodermal measures—changes during these episodes. The authors hypothesized that mind wandering, associated with low task engagement, would manifest as reduced autonomic activity. Forty-three participants supervised a simulated autonomous motorway drive for 20 minutes in a high-fidelity car simulator. Attentional states were monitored using experience sampling methods; every 60 to 120 seconds, participants self-reported whether their thoughts were focused on the task or wandering. Physiological data, including heart rate, heart rate variability (SDNN and RMSSD), tonic skin conductance level, and phasic skin conductance responses, were recorded continuously. Data were analyzed using Linear Mixed Models to compare physiological reactivity between "on-task" and "mind-wandering" states, accounting for temporal progression and individual variability. The results revealed distinct physiological differences between attentional states. Mind wandering was associated with significantly fewer phasic skin conductance responses compared to focused attention, indicating reduced sympathetic arousal. Additionally, SDNN reactivity (Standard Deviation of Normal-to-Normal intervals) was lower during mind wandering, particularly after the initial phase of the experiment, suggesting decreased overall heart rate variability. However, mind wandering did not significantly affect RMSSD, heart rate, or tonic skin conductance levels, although tonic levels varied over time regardless of attentional state. Participants reported mind wandering in approximately 64% of probes, confirming the prevalence of this state during passive supervision. These findings demonstrate that mind wandering during delegated driving is characterized by specific cardiac and electrodermal signatures reflecting low engagement and reduced sympathetic activity. The study concludes that monitoring these physiological indicators could enable the detection of mind wandering before a takeover request is issued. This capability is crucial for enhancing driver monitoring systems in autonomous vehicles, potentially improving safety by alerting drivers or adjusting system behavior when attentional resources are insufficient for safe vehicle control. The authors suggest future research should incorporate additional measures like pre-ejection period and electroencephalography to further validate these findings and explore individual differences.

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Topics

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• mind wandering
• cognitive
• drowsiness
• workload measurement
• temporal
• manual

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: physiological data, behavioral performance data
• Theoretical Contribution: theory or model