5203 Mesurement of driver's brain function by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy : Evaluation of reduction in driver's mental workload by driving
DOI: 10.1299/jsmetld.2008.17.431
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Summary
This study investigates the effectiveness of driving assistance systems, specifically Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), in reducing driver mental workload by measuring brain activity. The research is motivated by the need to evaluate whether such systems genuinely alleviate cognitive burden or potentially induce safety risks through reduced attention. While functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a common method for assessing brain activity, its requirement for immobility limits its applicability to driving scenarios. Consequently, the authors employ functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a non-invasive technique that measures changes in oxygenated (oxyHb) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (deoxyHb) concentrations, allowing for natural movement during experiments. The experimental design utilized a driving simulator where four male subjects in their twenties followed a leading vehicle exhibiting a specific speed pattern involving stop-and-go situations. Two conditions were tested: manual driving without ACC and assisted driving with ACC. Brain activity in the prefrontal cortex was recorded using an OMM-3000 fNIRS device with 42 channels. To isolate task-related neural signals from noise and physiological artifacts, the researchers applied discrete wavelet transform-based multi-resolution analysis. Furthermore, because fNIRS data represents relative changes, the authors standardized the signals using Z-scores to enable comparison and averaging across subjects. The results demonstrated a distinct difference in brain activity between the two conditions. During manual driving, oxyHb levels in the bilateral lateral prefrontal cortex increased significantly in correlation with driving behaviors, particularly during acceleration and deceleration phases. This indicates active cognitive engagement in recognizing the leading vehicle and executing control inputs. In contrast, when using the ACC system, no significant correlation was observed between brain activity and vehicle speed or driving maneuvers. The standardized averaged data confirmed that prefrontal cortex activation was markedly lower during ACC-assisted driving compared to manual driving. The study concludes that fNIRS is a viable method for evaluating driver mental workload and assessing the efficacy of driving assistance systems. The findings provide empirical evidence that ACC reduces the cognitive load associated with longitudinal vehicle control. However, the authors caution that reduced brain activity does not automatically equate to safer driving, as it may lead to decreased vigilance. Future work should focus on designing assistance systems that maintain an optimal level of driver engagement to ensure safety while reducing excessive burden.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| enrich | failed | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 10 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.
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- Empirical Findings: physiological data
- Methodological Resource: tool software
- Theoretical Contribution: theory or model