Frontiers in aging neuroscience
Aging on the road: neural and behavioral correlates of cognitive control during distracted driving
By Alyan E, Getzmann S, Wascher E and 1 others.
Abstract
Objective
Aging increases crash risk through failures to prioritize safety-critical actions amid competing information. The neural basis of adaptive cognitive control under these demands remains insufficiently understood.
Methods
This study examined age effects on braking prioritization in 44 drivers (23 younger, 21 older) using a car-following simulation with lane keeping, in which participants withheld sign responses whenever brake signals took priority. Participants completed Sign (button press to classify road signs), Brake (pedal press to the brake lights of the car ahead), and dual-demand signBrake trials (simultaneous Sign and Brake, braking prioritized). Measures included reaction time, errors, mean absolute steering-wheel angle, blink metrics, ERPs (N1, P3, and LFN), time-frequency power, and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of age decoding.
