Analysis of the impact of acoustic stimulation on vigilance decrement and drowsiness on expressways and its habituation
通过驾驶模拟器实验，研究了单调音、语音和情感声音三种声学刺激对高速公路驾驶员警觉性的影响，发现情感声音抗习惯化效果更好，有助于防止注意力不集中驾驶。
This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of acoustic stimulation in enhancing driver's vigilance, improving driving performance, and preventing inattentive driving on expressways. While numerous studies have investigated the effects of acoustic stimuli on drivers' attention, the influence of different types of stimuli on sustained attention and driving behavior remains unclear. Particularly, the habituation effect to the stimuli during driving has not been investigated. In this study, several types of acoustic stimuli-monotone sounds, verbal messages, and emotional sounds-are examined as potential countermeasures for vigilance decrement. Their effects on inattentive driving and the stability of driving behavior are assessed and compared with a control condition using a driving simulator (DS) experiment in which each participant was asked to continuously operate a DS for 20 min under each experimental condition. The experimental results with 30 participants reveal that: (1) acoustic stimulation initially produces an awakening effect, but its effectiveness tends to decline over time due to habituation; and (2) among the three types of acoustic stimuli tested, emotional sounds have a stronger and more sustained effect on maintaining driver alertness, showing less susceptibility to habituation than monotone or verbal stimuli. These findings suggest that emotional acoustic stimuli may serve as a promising basis for the development of in-vehicle or infrastructure-based systems aimed at preventing inattentive driving and improving road safety.