Investigating multilevel cognitive processing within error-free and error-prone feedback conditions in executed and observed car driving

Accident analyses repeatedly reported the considerable contribution of run-off-road incidents to fatalities in road traffic, and despite considerable advances in assistive technologies to mitigate devastating consequences, little insight into the drivers’ brain response during such accident scenarios has been gained. While various literature documents neural correlates to steering motion, the driver’s mental state, and the impact of distraction and fatigue on driving performance, the cortical substrate of continuous deviations of a car from the road – i.e., how the brain represents a varying discrepancy between the intended and observed car position and subsequently assigns customized levels of corrective measures – remains unclear. Furthermore, the superposition of multiple subprocesses, such as visual and erroneous feedback processing, performance monitoring, or motor control, complicates a clear interpretation of engaged brain regions within car driving tasks. In the present study, we thus attempted to disentangle these subprocesses, employing passive and active steering conditions within both error-free and error-prone vehicle operation conditions. We recorded EEG signals of 26 participants in 13 sessions, simultaneously measuring pairs of Executors (actively steering) and Observers (strictly observing) during a car driving task. We observed common brain patterns in the Executors regardless of error-free or error-prone vehicle operation, albeit with a shift in spectral activity from motor beta to occipital alpha oscillations within erroneous conditions. Further, significant frontocentral differences between Observers and Executors, tracing back to the caudal anterior cingulate cortex, arose during active steering conditions, indicating increased levels of motor-behavioral cognitive control. Finally, we present regression results of both the steering signal and the car position, indicating that a regression of continuous deviations from the road utilizing the EEG might be feasible.