According to a new study, the brain loses its ability to make a left-hand turn if the driver is talking on the phone while driving.
Major traffic accidents are caused when people talk on hands-free cell phones while driving. Statistics also show that most of these accidents take place at busy intersections where the driver is required to make a left-hand turn. Now, researchers from St. Michael's Hospital have found the reason.
A group of researchers, led by Dr. Tom Schweizer from St. Michael's Hospital found that while talking on a hands-free cell phone while driving, the brain becomes incapable of making left-hand turns. For the study, the researchers tested healthy young drivers and found that left hand turns require a huge amount of brain activation and involve far more areas of the brain than driving on a straight road or other maneuvers.
"Visually, a left-hand turn is quite demanding," Dr. Schweizer said. "You have to look at oncoming traffic, pedestrians and lights, and coordinate all that. Add talking on a cell phone, and your visual area shuts down significantly, which obviously is key to performing the maneuver."
"Brain activity shifted dramatically from the posterior, visual and spatial areas [of the brain] to the prefrontal cortex," said Dr. Schweizer, a neuroscientist and director of the Neuroscience Research Program at the hospital's Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute. "This study provides real-time neuroimaging evidence supporting previous behavioural observations suggesting that multitasking while driving may compromise vision and alertness. 'Hands free' not does mean 'brains free.'"
The findings of this study were published online February 28 in the open access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
