Intense mind wandering could account for 'substantial proportion' of road crashes

And 13 percent of those crashes are due to 'disturbing' thoughts

2012-12-14

(Press-News.org) Mind wandering and driving: responsibility case-control study

People whose minds wander whilst driving, especially when intense, are significantly more likely to be responsible for a crash and are threatening safety on the roads, warns a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today.

The term "mind wandering" has been coined to describe thinking unrelated to the task at hand. It happens most often at rest or during repetitive tasks.

All drivers experience occasional drifting of their minds towards internal thoughts, a temporary "zoning out" that might dangerously distract them from the road.

External distractions (such as from mobile phones) are known to be linked with crashes, but inattention arising from internal distractions (such as worries) is still poorly understood in the context of road safety.

A team of researchers from France therefore wanted to see if mind wandering would increase the risk of being responsible for a crash.

They interviewed 955 drivers injured in a motor vehicle crash attending the emergency department at Bordeaux University Hospital between April 2010 and August 2011. All participants were 18 years or older.

Patients were asked to describe their thought content just before the crash. Researchers also assessed how disruptive/distracting the thought was. Mitigating factors considered to reduce driver responsibility, such as road environment, traffic conditions, traffic rule obedience and difficulty of the driving task were also taken into account.

Finally, blood alcohol level was tested as well as the driver's emotional state just before the crash.

They classified 453 (47%) drivers as responsible for the crash and 502 (53%) as not responsible.

Over half (52%) reported some mind wandering just before the crash, and its content was highly disrupting / distracting (defined as intense mind wandering) in 121 (13%).

Intense mind wandering was associated with greater responsibility for a crash - 17% (78 of 453 crashes in which the driver was thought to be responsible) compared with 9% (43 of 502 crashes in which the driver was not thought to be responsible).

This association remained after adjusting for other confounding factors that could have affected the results.

The authors conclude that the association between intense mind wandering and crashing "could stem from a risky decoupling of attention from online perception, making the driver prone to overlook hazards and to make more errors during driving."

They add that this study could lead to new interventions to help drivers by detecting periods of inattention. "Detecting those lapses can therefore provide an opportunity to further decrease the toll of road injury." ### END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Experts advise doctors on how to clear patients for space travel

2012-12-14

Can I take a space flight? Considerations for doctors With the prospect of space travel for tourists looming, clinicians could soon be asked to advise on medical clearance for their patients, says a paper published in the BMJ Christmas edition and appearing online today. Space travel opportunities are becoming increasingly available to the general public with bookings already in place. A team of experts from North America therefore looked to provide advice to clinicians who require direction when advising patients on space travel. The Aerospace Medical Association ...

McMaster researchers find age not factor in immunity to viruses

2012-12-14

Hamilton, Ont. (Dec. 13, 2012) — Our immune system does not shut down with age, says a new study led by McMaster University researchers. A study published in PLOS Pathogens today shows a specialized class of immune cells, known as T cells, can respond to virus infections in an older person with the same vigour as T cells from a young person. "For a long time, it was thought the elderly were at a higher risk of infections because they lacked these immune cells, but that simply isn't the case," said Jonathan Bramson, the study's principal investigator. "The elderly are ...

Cancer scientists identify a new layer of complexity within human colon cancer

2012-12-14

(TORONTO, Canada – Dec. 13, 2012 ) – Cancer scientists led by Dr. John Dick at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have found a way to follow single tumour cells and observe their growth over time. By using special immune-deficient mice to propagate human colorectal cancer, they found that genetic mutations, regarded by many as the chief suspect driving cancer growth, are only one piece of the puzzle. The team discovered that biological factors and cell behaviour – not only genes – drive tumour growth, contributing to therapy failure and relapse. The findings, published ...

No more lying about your age: Scientists can now gauge skin's true age with new laser technique

2012-12-14

Wrinkles, dryness, and a translucent and fragile appearance are hallmarks of old skin, caused by the natural aging of skin cells. But while most of us can recognize the signs of lost youth when we peer into the mirror each morning, scientists do not have a standardized way to measure the extent of age damage in skin. Now a group of Taiwanese researchers has used a specialized microscope to peer harmlessly beneath the skin surface to measure natural age-related changes in the sizes of skin cells. The results, which are published in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access ...

Berkeley Lab research finds the insurance industry paying increasing attention to climate change

2012-12-14

The insurance industry, the world's largest business with $4.6 trillion in revenues, is making larger efforts to manage climate change-related risks, according to a new study published today in the journal Science. "Weather- and climate-related insurance losses today average $50 billion a year. These losses have more than doubled each decade since the 1980s, adjusted for inflation," says the study's author Evan Mills, a scientist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)'s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. "Insurers have become quite adept at quantifying ...

Researchers find new culprit in castration-resistant prostate cancer

2012-12-14

BOSTON—Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a molecular switch that enables advanced prostate cancers to spread without stimulation by male hormones, which normally are needed to spur the cancer's growth. They say the finding could lead to a new treatment for prostate cancers that are no longer controlled by hormone-blocking drugs. The researchers report in the Dec. 14 issue of Science that the molecular switch occurs in a protein, EZH2, which is increased in these tumors, termed castration-resistant prostate cancers (CRPC). EZH2 is part of a ...

Who are sports gamers?

2012-12-14

Montreal, December 13, 2012 – From Gran Turismo to WWE Smackdown, sports-based video games represent a wide variety of pursuits. When it comes to the people who actually play those games, however, little is known. How do sports video game players fit their games into a larger sports-related context? How does their video game play inform their media usage and general sports fandom? That's what Concordia University communications professor Mia Consalvo sought to discover when she embarked on a large-scale study of video game players, the results of which were recently published ...

'Two-faced' cells discovered in colon cancer

2012-12-14

CHICAGO -- Northwestern Medicine researchers have discovered a "two-faced" group of cells at work in human colon cancer, with opposing functions that can suppress or promote tumor growth. These cells are a subset of T-regulatory (Treg) cells, known to suppress immune responses in healthy individuals In this previously unknown Treg subset, the presence of the protein RORγt has been shown to differentiate between cancer-protecting and cancer-promoting properties. The Northwestern team, led by Khashayarsha Khazaie, research associate professor at the Robert H. ...

Bubble study could improve industrial splash control

2012-12-14

ARGONNE, Ill. – For the first time, scientists witnessed the details of the full, ultrafast process of liquid droplets evolving into a bubble when they strike a surface. Their research determined that surface wetness affects the bubble's fate. This research could one day help eliminate bubbles formed during spray coating, metal casting and ink-jet printing. It also could impact studies on fuel efficiency and engine life by understanding the splashing caused by fuel hitting engine walls. "How liquid coalesces into a drop or breaks up into a splash when hitting something ...

Despite hype, costly prostate cancer treatment offers little relief from side effects

2012-12-14

Prostate cancer patients receiving the costly treatment known as proton radiotherapy experienced minimal relief from side effects such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction, compared to patients undergoing a standard radiation treatment called intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Standard treatments for men with prostate cancer, such as radical prostatectomy and IMRT, are known for causing adverse side effects such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Proponents of ...

Intense mind wandering could account for 'substantial proportion' of road crashes

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: