Understanding Mental States in Active and Autonomous Driving with EEG

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Angkan, Prithila, Hungler, Paul, Etemad, Ali
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Angkan, Prithila
Hungler, Paul
Etemad, Ali
author_facet Angkan, Prithila
Hungler, Paul
Etemad, Ali
contents Understanding how driver mental states differ between active and autonomous driving is critical for designing safe human-vehicle interfaces. This paper presents the first EEG-based comparison of cognitive load, fatigue, valence, and arousal across the two driving modes. Using data from 31 participants performing identical tasks in both scenarios of three different complexity levels, we analyze temporal patterns, task-complexity effects, and channel-wise activation differences. Our findings show that although both modes evoke similar trends across complexity levels, the intensity of mental states and the underlying neural activation differ substantially, indicating a clear distribution shift between active and autonomous driving. Transfer-learning experiments confirm that models trained on active driving data generalize poorly to autonomous driving and vice versa. We attribute this distribution shift primarily to differences in motor engagement and attentional demands between the two driving modes, which lead to distinct spatial and temporal EEG activation patterns. Although autonomous driving results in lower overall cortical activation, participants continue to exhibit measurable fluctuations in cognitive load, fatigue, valence, and arousal associated with readiness to intervene, task-evoked emotional responses, and monotony-related passive fatigue. These results emphasize the need for scenario-specific data and models when developing next-generation driver monitoring systems for autonomous vehicles.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_09190
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Understanding Mental States in Active and Autonomous Driving with EEG
Angkan, Prithila
Hungler, Paul
Etemad, Ali
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Understanding how driver mental states differ between active and autonomous driving is critical for designing safe human-vehicle interfaces. This paper presents the first EEG-based comparison of cognitive load, fatigue, valence, and arousal across the two driving modes. Using data from 31 participants performing identical tasks in both scenarios of three different complexity levels, we analyze temporal patterns, task-complexity effects, and channel-wise activation differences. Our findings show that although both modes evoke similar trends across complexity levels, the intensity of mental states and the underlying neural activation differ substantially, indicating a clear distribution shift between active and autonomous driving. Transfer-learning experiments confirm that models trained on active driving data generalize poorly to autonomous driving and vice versa. We attribute this distribution shift primarily to differences in motor engagement and attentional demands between the two driving modes, which lead to distinct spatial and temporal EEG activation patterns. Although autonomous driving results in lower overall cortical activation, participants continue to exhibit measurable fluctuations in cognitive load, fatigue, valence, and arousal associated with readiness to intervene, task-evoked emotional responses, and monotony-related passive fatigue. These results emphasize the need for scenario-specific data and models when developing next-generation driver monitoring systems for autonomous vehicles.
title Understanding Mental States in Active and Autonomous Driving with EEG
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09190