Neuroscience, behavioural studies suggest hands-free texting still distracted driving risk

Voice recognition technology that lets users operate smartphones without typing does not eliminate the risk of distracted driving, a recent report suggests.

“The crash risk associated with hands-free texting while driving is not as well understood because in-car voice-to-text technology is relatively new,” according to a report by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation. But recent studies “support the contention that hands-free texting while driving poses significant distraction, and, consequently, unacceptable crash risk.”

The report, titled “Driver Distraction and hands free texting while driving,” was sponsored by Advanced Drivers Education Products and Training Inc. It was written by Daniel Mayhew, Robyn Robertson, Steve Brown and Ward Vanalaar.

They cited several studies, including one published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience and written by six Toronto-based researchers, including Tom Schweitzer, director of the neuroscience research program at St. Michael’s Hospital and a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto.

That paper, titled “Brain activity during driving with distraction: an immersive fMRI study,” discussed observations from an experiment in which people were driving in a simulator with a fully-functional steering wheel and pedals. They were monitored using magneto resonance imaging (MRI).

While driving in the simulator, the participants were asked to respond to general knowledge questions, whose answers were either true or false. They indicated their answers by pressing buttons on a steering wheel designed to be “similar to modern vehicle designs for answering hands-free devices or volume controls,” the TIRF report noted.

“The authors found that during distracted driving, brain activation shifted dramatically form the posterior of the brain, which governs visual and spatial areas, to the prefrontal cortex, which regulates cognitive function and decision making,” the TIRF report noted of the study. “They may look but not ‘see’ what is happening in the driving environment.”

TIRF  noted in its report that cellular phone use is “just one small part of a much larger problem” of distracted driving, adding it also includes talking to passengers, eating, grooming and using vehicle navigation systems and multifunction controllers.

“Drivers can suffer from cognitive overload,” TIRF warned. “At this stage the brain must decide which information will receive attention.”

The TIRF report also quoted from a study published in April by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

That study, managed by Christine Yager, associate transportation researcher for the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, involved 43 participants who were observed both on response times and where they were looking. They drove a vehicle using no cell phones and then while sending and receiving text messages, both using manual entry and while using two different voice-to-text applications.

In Yager’s study, TIRF noted, driver response time was about two times slower and the time they spent with their eyes off the road “significantly increased” when they used any application for texting, even if it was hands-free.

“Although suggestive, the Yager study had a small sample size and further research will need to be conducted to replicate the findings as well as establish the crash risk of hands free texting,” the TIRF report noted, but added there are still reasons to be concerned.

When drivers text using hands free applications they are “multi tasking’ and that increases the drivers’ “cognitive workload,” TIRF warned.