American scientists in an experiment involving 59 volunteer drivers identified the most dangerous condition while driving. It turned out that when the driver is under stress and even when he "turns off", his mistakes while driving are corrected by a sixth sense, which does not work if the car enthusiast is busy typing text messages.
According to Phys.org, a research team led by Ioannis Pavlidis and Robert Wunderlich of the University of Houston set up an experiment involving 59 volunteer car enthusiasts. Scientists have observed how people behave while driving when they are distracted by important issues, experiencing emotional stress and when they are typing text messages. Participants were asked to drive the same section of the path four times: under "normal conditions," when they were focused on driving, when they were distracted by "cognitively difficult" questions, when their attention was focused on emotionally charged questions, and when they were consumed by text messages.
The researchers found that if the drivers were distracted by something, driving became more nervous. This led to significant deviations from the lane, however, driving became dangerous only when motorists were busy typing text messages.
According to the researchers, the sixth sense protects drivers at all times, except when dialing SMS. When drivers are distracted by important issues or emotional distress, they subconsciously still control the vehicle's trajectory.
“A possible explanation for this paradox is the function performed by the anterior cingulate cortex. As you know, this part of the brain automatically intervenes as an error corrector when a conflict arises. In this case, the conflict occurs due to cognitive, emotional and sensorimotor - a set of SMS - stresses. All together significantly increases the overall stress level of the driver, the scientists suggest.