Electrophysiological and performance variations following driving events involving an increase in mental workload

This study aimed at investigating how driver's mental workload could be assessed during driving, using driving performance as well as electrophysiological and subjective data. Participants had to follow a lead vehicle at a safe and constant distance and to deal with two particular driving events (overtaking and pedestrian occurrence) within two sessions (baseline and experimental) on a driving simulator. Traffic density and time pressure (overtaking event) and time pressure (pedestrian event) were increased in the experimental session in order to induce a higher workload. Participants filled NASA TLX questionnaire after each driving session. Electrophysiological parameters (SCL, ECG), driving performance (SDLP and response to speed change of the lead vehicle: coherence, delay and gain) were analysed after each event in two temporal windows (30 sec and 5 min). Results showed that both performance and physiological variables differed as a function of traffic conditions and time pressure. Moreover, while performance variations were systematically observed over a long period (five minutes after the events), effects on mean SCL data obtained from experimental session notably differed from baseline values within thirty seconds after the events. Results are discussed in term of mental workload and suggestions are made about the safety systems that could monitor driver's mental state