Mitigating passive fatigue of monotonous driving with finger activities: A driving simulator study

Monotonous driving always causes passive fatigue of drivers, consequently resulting in the reduction of alertness and an increase in traffic accidents risk. Therefore, it becomes important to mitigate the passive fatigue of drivers for counteracting potential accident risk. The objective of the current study is to examine the effect of finger activities on the mitigating of passive fatigue. The finger activities are composed of tapping the fingertip, pressing nail roots, flicking fingers, pressing the sides of fingertips, and closing/opening the fingers. Seven participants were recruited to conduct a driving simulator experiment, and a monotonous driving scenario was designed to induct passive fatigue. A treatment session implemented the finger activities, and a control session watched the video of finger activities. The effects of passive fatigue were assessed on three dimensions: subjective evaluations, physiological indicators, and driving performance measures. The subjective evaluation showed that the mean value of the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale was significantly lower after finger activities than before finger activities. The physiological indicators indicated that blink rate was significantly suppressed with finger activities than with watching videos. The driving performance measures showed that the steering wheel reversal rate was significantly higher after finger activities than before finger activities.