Experts believe using cell phone while driving affect drivers’ brains

Experts believe using cell phone while driving affect drivers’ brains

It is general perception that it is risky to drive while using a cell phone. Now psychologist David Strayer of the University of Utah has claimed in a study that using a mobile phone while driving a car sharply reduces brain activity required to keep track of road conditions.

This can result in the driver gaze at things without their brains actually seeing them.

He also claimed that using a hands free device to talk poses the same risks as using the phone itself.

Strayer was speaking at the American Psychological Association meeting in New Orleans when he revealed his findings.

Some of the prime facts mentioned in his statement were:

• Conversations with passengers reduce a driver’s attention, but they are not as unsafe as talking on a phone. “Passengers tend to help the driver if they see something hazardous. They might point it out or at least stop talking,” Strayer says.

• Studies show that talking on a cellphone cuts a driver’s brain activity in half in a key area of the brain needed for noticing traffic conditions.

• Eye-tracking studies show that when drivers eyeball objects on a road, they’re much less likely to recall seeing something if they’re on the phone at the same time. “They’re as blind to dumpsters along the road as to a child running across the street,” Strayer says.