ArticleScientific reports2021
Shedding light on the prefrontal correlates of mental workload in simulated driving: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurophysiological Characteristics Associated with Driving Abilities in Older Adults: A Scoping Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Through Massage to the Brain-Neuronal and Neuroplastic Mechanisms of Massage Based on Various Neuroimaging Techniques (EEG, fMRI, and fNIRS).Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Pupillary dynamics during hands-off L2 driving and transitions of control under high cognitive load.PloS one · 2026Article
- Cerebral oxygenation responses to obstructive sleep apnea in cognitively normal older adults: a study using simultaneous polysomnography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Neuroanatomical correlates of distracted straight driving performance: a driving simulator MRI study across the lifespan.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Article
- Neuromodulation on the ground and in the clouds: a mini review of transcranial direct current stimulation for altering performance in interactive driving and flight simulators.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- Driving risk cognition of passengers in highly automated driving based on the prefrontal cortex activity via fNIRS.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study on the prefrontal correlates of cognitive offloading via a personal knowledge assistant.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Assessing the development of mental fatigue during simulated flights with concurrent EEG-fNIRS measurement.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Lifestyle Matters: Effects of Habitual Physical Activity on Driving Skills in Older Age.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Investigating mental workload-induced changes in cortical oxygenation and frontal theta activity during simulated flights.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- fNIRS-Based Upper Limb Motion Intention Recognition Using an Artificial Neural Network for Transhumeral Amputees.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Illuminating the prefrontal neural correlates of action sequence disassembling in response-response binding.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Optimal mental workload plays a key role in driving performance. Thus, driver-assisting systems that automatically adapt to a drivers current mental workload via brain-computer interfacing might greatly contribute to traffic safety. To design economic brain computer interfaces that do not compromise driver comfort, it is necessary to identify brain areas that are most sensitive to mental workload changes. In this study, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy and subjective ratings to measure mental workload in two virtual driving environments with distinct demands. We found that demanding city environments induced both higher subjective workload ratings as well as higher bilateral middle frontal gyrus activation than less demanding country environments. A further analysis with higher spatial resolution revealed a center of activation in the right anterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The area is highly involved in spatial working memory processing. Thus, a main component of drivers' mental workload in complex surroundings might stem from the fact that large amounts of spatial information about the course of the road as well as other road users has to constantly be upheld, processed and updated. We propose that the right middle frontal gyrus might be a suitable region for the application of powerful small-area brain computer interfaces.
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