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Abstract:
Driving a car requires skilled visuomotor performance.
Virtually nothing is known about the cerebral processes underlying
this ability. We conducted an fMRI study in which a driving
simulator was projected onto video goggles and healthy, young
subjects could drive a car through a virtual town with the help of
a joystick. In order to find regions specifically associated with
driving we studied two conditions. In the driving condition,
subjects steered the car, in the co-driving condition the car was
steered from outside the scanner and subjects only followed the
course of the car visually. For the main effect we found visual
areas activated in both conditions. In the driving condition, also
motor areas and the cerebellum were activated. Comparing driving
and codriving with each other, we found only motor and cerebellar
regions being activated more than driving than during co-driving.
The opposite contrast (co-driving more than driving) revealed
several areas (frontal, temporal and occipitoparietal regions
bilaterally) of the brain being less activated during driving than
during codriving. We conclude that driving a virtual car compared
to co-driving does not recruit higher executive centers but mainly
regions concerned with execution and coordination of motor
activity.
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