Abstract
Drivers with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk of experiencing driving difficulties. An important aspect of driving safety and skill involves hazard detection. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural responses associated with driving hazard detection in drivers with ASD, ADHD, and typically developing (TD) drivers. Forty participants (12 ASD, 15 ADHD, 13 TD) ages 16–30 years completed a driving simulator task in which they encountered social and nonsocial hazards; reaction time (RT) for responding to hazards was measured. Participants then completed a similar hazard detection task in the MRI scanner so that neural response to hazards could be measured. Activation of regions of interest considered part of the executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) networks were examined and related to driving simulator behavior. Results showed that stronger activation of the EF network during social hazard processing, including the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex, was associated with faster RT to social hazards among drivers with ADHD, but not among drivers with ASD. This provides the first evidence of a relationship between EF network brain activation and driving skills in ADHD and suggests that alterations in this network may underlie driving behavior. In comparison, the current study did not observe a relationship between ToM network activation and RT to social hazards in any group. This study lays the groundwork for relating neural activation to driving behavior among individuals with NDDs.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to ongoing analysis of the data set but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Piyush Pawar, MS for conducting data cleaning and preprocessing of driving simulator data, to Inaara Rajpari, BS for significant contributions to neuroimaging data collection, and to Edwin Cook, PhD for consultation regarding statistical analyses. The research described in this paper was supported by the Civitan International Pilot Research Grant, the University of Alabama College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Fund, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Psychology.
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The research described in this paper was supported by the Civitan International Pilot Research Grant, the University of Alabama College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Fund, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Psychology.
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HB: Methodology, software, formal analysis, investigation, project administration, data curation, writing-original draft, writing-review & editing, visualization. DS: Conceptualization, methodology, resources, writing-review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition. AS: Software, investigation, project administration, data curation. GS: Investigation, project administration, data curation. BM: software, methodology, data curation. HD: Investigation. RK: Conceptualization, methodology resources, writing-review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition.
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Bednarz, H.M., Stavrinos, D., Svancara, A.M. et al. Executive Function Brain Network Activation Predicts Driving Hazard Detection in ADHD. Brain Topogr 35, 251–267 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-021-00877-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-021-00877-7