Carnegie Mellon Neuroscientist Uses Brain Imaging to Prove Cell Phones..

From Reuters:

Media Advisory: Carnegie Mellon Neuroscientist Uses Brain Imaging to Prove
Cell Phones Distract Drivers


Who: Marcel Just, the D.O. Hebb Professor of Psychology and director of the
Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (http://www.ccbi.cmu.edu/index_main.htm) at
Carnegie Mellon University.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020422/CMULOGO )

What: Dialing, texting and otherwise using a cell phone is a distraction for
drivers and is causing many legislatures to consider laws restricting cell
phone use in cars. In August, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation announced
an upcoming summit for lawmakers and experts to discuss driving distractions
and whether banning or limiting cell phones while driving is necessary.

According to Carnegie Mellon neuroscientist Marcel Just, simply listening to
someone speak on the other end of a cell phone is enough to impair driving.
Just and his colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to
study volunteers using a driver simulator. When they were listening to a
sentence, they were more likely to weave in their lane than when they were
driving undisturbed. Furthermore, the fMRI scans showed that listening to
someone speak while they were driving reduced by 37 percent the amount of
brain activity associated with driving, compared to driving alone, as shown in
the accompanying graphic. This decrease in available brain resources can cause
drivers to commit the same types of driving errors that can occur under the
influence of alcohol.

Another study from Just's laboratory showed that subjects could not willfully
ignore someone speaking to them; the processing of a spoken message was so
automatic that it could not be gated out, and continued to affect the brain
activation associated with a second concurrent task. This study shows the
dangers of cell phone use by drivers can not be overcome by strategic control
of one's attention.

Just's research shows that making cell phones hands-free or voice-activated is
not sufficient in eliminating distractions to drivers. "Drivers need to keep
not only their hands on the wheel; they also have to keep their brains on the
road," Just said. "The clear implication of our work is that engaging in a
conversation could jeopardize the judgment and reaction time if an atypical or
unusual driving situation arose. Driving in quick-moving traffic is no place
for an involved personal or business discussion, let alone texting."

Why: Just is a pioneer in using brain imaging to discover how humans perform
mental tasks and has testified in front of the Pennsylvania General Assembly's
House Transportation Committee on the dangers of hand-held phones and driving.
His brain research also includes identifying the "team play" among different
brain areas -- a theory that explains how the brain compensates for damage
from injuries such as stroke by recruiting back-up players. Additionally,
Just and his colleague Tom Mitchell used brain imaging to identify the content
of thoughts of concrete objects, being able for the first time to read the
minds of people in their scanner. A January 2009 "60 Minutes" report featured
Just and Mitchell demonstrating and explaining their thought identification
work.

Contact: Phone or live, on-camera interviews with Just can be scheduled by
contacting Shilo Raube at 412-268-6094 or sraube@andrew.cmu.edu.


About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private,
internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from
science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the
fine arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and
colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education
characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real
problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university,
Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It
has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia,
Australia and Europe. The university is in the midst of a $1 billion
comprehensive campaign, titled "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie
Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty,
students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with
equipment and facility improvements. For more about Carnegie Mellon, visit
http://www.cmu.edu/about/


/PRNewswire -- Sept. 4/

SOURCE Carnegie Mellon University

Shilo Raube of Carnegie Mellon, +1-412-268-6094, sraube@andrew.cmu.edu