Texting While Driving Could Dull Your ‘Sixth Sense’

We all know that texting while driving is a big no-no regardless of the situation. We know that it can lead to accidents and even death, but yet people continue doing it anyway. Now it might be easy to lump texting and driving, talking while driving, eating while driving, and etc. together and call it “distractions”, but apparently there is a difference.

According to a recent study conducted by the University of Houston, it seems that texting while driving will actually dull your “sixth sense”. This sixth sense is apparently responsible for helping you counter mental distractions, which we guess you could also classify as being your instincts. The test saw participants drive in a simulated stretch of a highway 4 times, with the first time being distraction free, and the subsequent times being distracted.

The first distraction was a cognitive challenge, the second an emotional, and the third texting. Interestingly enough according to their findings, texting while driving saw participants yield the worst results compared to emotional and cognitive distractions. So why is one form of distraction worse than the other?

According to the research’s co-lead Ioannis Pavlidis, “ACC [anterior cingulate cortex] is known to automatically intervene as an error corrector when there is conflict. In this case, the conflict comes from the cognitive, emotional and sensorimotor, or texting, stressors. This raises the levels of physiological stress, funneling ‘fight or flight’ energy to the driver’s arms, resulting in jittery handling of the steering wheel.”

Pavlidis suggests that even if we’re angry or if our mind wanders, our hand-eye coordination is still intact. However this coordination is broken when we attempt to reach for our phones or are texting with one hand on the wheel. Basically we all know that texting and driving is dangerous, but maybe now you know a bit of science behind the “why”.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: safety, Science