利用聲音回饋警示於增加駕駛者清醒程度的影響

Abstract

駕駛者分心被普遍認為是導致車禍事故的主要原因。使用合適的警示刺激或許可降低注意力上的失誤，或者有效的避免災難性的後果。過去許多研究也都曾指出聲音回饋警示明顯有助於改善實驗任務的表現，但行為程度上的改變到底可反應多少大腦的動態改變還未清楚。而這個研究探討的是，當受測者顯示出短暫瞌睡的認知狀態時，給予受測者聲音警示刺激後的相關神經反應。共有十一位受測者參與此虛擬實境的開車實驗。藉由虛擬環境下的事件相關開車偏移任務以模擬長時間的公路駕駛，並且腦電波的長期與暫態變化會透過獨立訊號分析、時域頻域轉換、及無母數統計檢定等方法進行分析比較。結果顯示，聲音警示刺激不僅可加速反應時間，而且還可使駕駛者恢復到較清醒的精神狀態。此外利用聲音警示以降低駕駛者的瞌睡層度的效果可大約持續10秒鐘左右。未來可針對不同的聲音刺激方法，或者甚至結合不同的聲音刺激形態應用在未來的研究上。

Driver inattention was widely attributed as a leading cause of car accidents. Using appropriate stimulating warnings might considerably reduce the lapses of attention and in turn, effectively avoid catastrophic consequences. Several studies have reported that the auditory feedback could contribute significantly to improving task performance. To what extent such behavioral changes could reflect on what already altered in the brain dynamics was unclear. The aim of this study is to explore the neural correlates of arousing signals delivered to subjects when they suffered from momentary cognitive drowsiness. Eleven subjects participated in virtual-reality (VR)-based highway driving experiments. The event-related lane-departure task was used in the VR environment to simulate the long-term high way driving and the task-related EEG spectral dynamics in terms of tonic and phasic changes were analyzed using independent component analysis, time-frequency and non-parametric statistical assessments. Results demonstrated the warning sounds can accelerate the response time and partially inhibit the drowsiness related brain oscillations. Furthermore, the effects of warning sounds on reducing the driver’s drossiness could sustain at least for 10 sec. In the future, methods to refine the characteristics the warning sounds and the combination with other warning modalities are needed for further studies.