My heart is racing! Psychophysiological dynamics of skilled racecar drivers

Our purpose was to test the multi-action plan (MAP) model assumptions in which athletes’ psychophysiological patterns differ among optimal and suboptimal performance experiences. Nine professional drivers competing in premier race categories (e.g., Formula 3, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge) completed the study. Data collection involved monitoring the drivers’ perceived hedonic tone, accuracy on core components of action, posture, skin temperature, respiration rate, and heart rate responses during a 40-lap simulated race. Time marks, gathered at three standardized sectors, served as the performance variable. The A1GP racing simulator (Allinsport, Modena) established a realistic race platform. Specifically, the Barcelona track was chosen due to its inherently difficult nature characterized by intermittent deceleration points. Idiosyncratic analyses showed large individual differences in the drivers’ psychophysiological profile, as well as distinct patterns in regards to optimal and suboptimal performance experiences. Limitations and future research avenues are discussed. Action (e.g., attentional control) and emotion (e.g., biofeedback training) centered applied sport psychology implications are advanced

Effects of conventional and high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on driving abilities: A tDCS-driving simulator study

Due to the multitasking nature of driving, drivers are physiologically distracted by both relevant and irrelevant environmental stimuli. The ability to select relevant stimuli and suppress irrelevant distractors during driving are two relevant factors for safety. There is a lot of evidence suggesting that the frontal eye field (FEF) plays an important role in target selection and distractors suppression, as well as in attentional mechanisms crucial for safety driving performance. Taking these two points into account, this study was designed to examine the effects of different transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) montages over right FEF to determine whether stimulation of FEF could improve attentional mechanisms in a simulated driving environment. Twenty-seven adult participants took part in the study. A specific driving simulator task was developed in which participants had to respond to brake light events of a preceding car in front of them while driving. The second distracting task consisted of road signs of countries and cities that appeared together with braking lights or alone. Participants were required to respond to one of the two categories with their right hand. These two tasks could be performed alone or in a combined condition. Each participant completed three sessions comparing the effects of different tDCS montages, i.e. conventional, focal 4*1 ring high-definition (HD-tDCS) and sham stimulations over the right FEF. Results indicated an overall better performance under the focal HD-tDCS condition. In particular, participants improved their performance both in braking light RTs and in the second distracting task. Taken together these results are interesting from a theoretical and methodological point of view, by demonstrating a direct effect of anodal focal HD-tDCS on FEF in attentional response during an ecological driving task

Visual Attention-Related Processing: Perspectives from Ageing, Cognitive Decline and Dementia

Visual attention is essential for environmental interactions, but our ability to respond to stimuli gradually declines across the lifespan, and such deficits are even more pronounced in various states of cognitive impairment. Examining the integrity of related components, from elements of attention capture to executive control, will improve our understanding of related declines by helping to explain behavioural and neural effects, which will ultimately contribute towards our knowledge of the extent of dysfunctional attention processes and their impact upon everyday life. Accordingly, this Special Issue represents a body of literature that fundamentally advances insights into visual attention processing, featuring studies spanning healthy ageing, mild cognitive impairment, and dementi

Neural processing of imminent collision in humans

Detecting a looming object and its imminent collision is imperative to survival. For most humans, it is a fundamental aspect of daily activities such as driving, road crossing and participating in sport, yet little is known about how the brain both detects and responds to such stimuli. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess neural response to looming stimuli in comparison with receding stimuli and motion-controlled static stimuli. We demonstrate for the first time that, in the human, the superior colliculus and the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus respond to looming in addition to cortical regions associated with motor preparation. We also implicate the anterior insula in making timing computations for collision events

Action prediction based on anticipatory brain potentials during simulated driving

Objective. The ability of an automobile to infer the driver's upcoming actions directly from neural signals could enrich the interaction of the car with its driver. Intelligent vehicles fitted with an on-board brain–computer interface able to decode the driver's intentions can use this information to improve the driving experience. In this study we investigate the neural signatures of anticipation of specific actions, namely braking and accelerating. Approach. We investigated anticipatory slow cortical potentials in electroencephalogram recorded from 18 healthy participants in a driving simulator using a variant of the contingent negative variation (CNV) paradigm with Go and No-go conditions: count-down numbers followed by 'Start'/'Stop' cue. We report decoding performance before the action onset using a quadratic discriminant analysis classifier based on temporal features. Main results. (i) Despite the visual and driving related cognitive distractions, we show the presence of anticipatory event related potentials locked to the stimuli onset similar to the widely reported CNV signal (with an average peak value of −8 μV at electrode Cz). (ii) We demonstrate the discrimination between cases requiring to perform an action upon imperative subsequent stimulus (Go condition, e.g. a 'Red' traffic light) versus events that do not require such action (No-go condition; e.g. a 'Yellow' light); with an average single trial classification performance of 0.83 ± 0.13 for braking and 0.79 ± 0.12 for accelerating (area under the curve). (iii) We show that the centro-medial anticipatory potentials are observed as early as 320 ± 200 ms before the action with a detection rate of 0.77 ± 0.12 in offline analysis. Significance. We show for the first time the feasibility of predicting the driver's intention through decoding anticipatory related potentials during simulated car driving with high recognition rates

It’s not all in your car: functional and structural correlates of exceptional driving skills in professional racers

Driving is a complex behavior that requires the integration of multiple cognitive functions. While many studies have investigated brain activity related to driving simulation under distinct conditions, little is known about the brain morphological and functional architecture in professional competitive driving, which requires exceptional motor and navigational skills. Here, 11 professional racing-car drivers and 11 “naïve” volunteers underwent both structural and functional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Subjects were presented with short movies depicting a Formula One car racing in four different official circuits. Brain activity was assessed in terms of regional response, using an Inter-Subject Correlation (ISC) approach, and regional interactions by mean of functional connectivity. In addition, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to identify specific structural differences between the two groups and potential interactions with functional differences detected by the ISC analysis. Relative to non-experienced drivers, professional drivers showed a more consistent recruitment of motor control and spatial navigation devoted areas, including premotor/motor cortex, striatum, anterior, and posterior cingulate cortex and retrosplenial cortex, precuneus, middle temporal cortex, and parahippocampus. Moreover, some of these brain regions, including the retrosplenial cortex, also had an increased gray matter density in professional car drivers. Furthermore, the retrosplenial cortex, which has been previously associated with the storage of observer-independent spatial maps, revealed a specific correlation with the individual driver's success in official competitions. These findings indicate that the brain functional and structural organization in highly trained racing-car drivers differs from that of subjects with an ordinary driving experience, suggesting that specific anatomo-functional changes may subtend the attainment of exceptional driving performance

It's not all in your car: functional and structural correlates of exceptional driving skills in professional racers.

Driving is a complex behavior that requires the integration of multiple cognitive functions. While many studies have investigated brain activity related to driving simulation under distinct conditions, little is known about the brain morphological and functional architecture in professional competitive driving, which requires exceptional motor and navigational skills. Here, 11 professional racing-car drivers and 11 "naïve" volunteers underwent both structural and functional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Subjects were presented with short movies depicting a Formula One car racing in four different official circuits. Brain activity was assessed in terms of regional response, using an Inter-Subject Correlation (ISC) approach, and regional interactions by mean of functional connectivity. In addition, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to identify specific structural differences between the two groups and potential interactions with functional differences detected by the ISC analysis. Relative to non-experienced drivers, professional drivers showed a more consistent recruitment of motor control and spatial navigation devoted areas, including premotor/motor cortex, striatum, anterior, and posterior cingulate cortex and retrosplenial cortex, precuneus, middle temporal cortex, and parahippocampus. Moreover, some of these brain regions, including the retrosplenial cortex, also had an increased gray matter density in professional car drivers. Furthermore, the retrosplenial cortex, which has been previously associated with the storage of observer-independent spatial maps, revealed a specific correlation with the individual driver's success in official competitions. These findings indicate that the brain functional and structural organization in highly trained racing-car drivers differs from that of subjects with an ordinary driving experience, suggesting that specific anatomo-functional changes may subtend the attainment of exceptional driving performance

Proceedings of the 3rd International Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Conference : Berlin, July 12th to July 14th 2018

The 3rd International Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) conference in Berlin 2018 brought together researchers from various disciplines interested in understanding the human brain in its natural environment and during active behavior. MoBI is a new imaging modality, employing mobile brain imaging methods like the electroencephalogram (EEG) or near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) synchronized to motion capture and other data streams to investigate brain activity while participants actively move in and interact with their environment. Mobile Brain / Body Imaging allows to investigate brain dynamics accompanying more natural cognitive and affective processes as it allows the human to interact with the environment without restriction regarding physical movement. Overcoming the movement restrictions of established imaging modalities like functional magnetic resonance tomography (MRI), MoBI can provide new insights into the human brain function in mobile participants. This imaging approach will lead to new insights into the brain functions underlying active behavior and the impact of behavior on brain dynamics and vice versa, it can be used for the development of more robust human-machine interfaces as well as state assessment in mobile humans.DFG, GR2627/10-1, 3rd International MoBI Conference 201