Citation

Macuga KL, Beall AC, Kelly JW, Smith RS, Loomis JM. Exp. Brain Res. 2007; 178(2): 141-150.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660, USA. macuga@psych.ucsb.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00221-006-0718-x

PMID

17091302

Abstract

Can driver steering behaviors, such as a lane change, be executed without visual feedback? In a recent study with a fixed-base driving simulator, drivers failed to execute the return phase of a lane change when steering without vision, resulting in systematic final heading errors biased in the direction of the lane change. Here we challenge the generality of that finding. Suppose that, when asked to perform a lane (position) change, drivers fail to recognize that a heading change is required to make a lateral position change. However, given an explicit path, the necessary heading changes become apparent. Here we demonstrate that when heading requirements are made explicit, drivers appropriately implement the return phase. More importantly, by using an electric vehicle outfitted with a portable virtual reality system, we also show that valid inertial information (i.e., vestibular and somatosensory cues) enables accurate steering behavior when vision is absent. Thus, the failure to properly execute a lane change in a driving simulator without a moving base does not present a fundamental problem for feed-forward driving behavior.

Language: en