Pedal Misapplication: Interruption Effects and Age-Related Differences.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate whether pedal misapplication occurs more frequently when a pedal task is interrupted for a longer period of time. BACKGROUND: Misapplication of a vehicle's brake and accelerator pedals can cause severe traffic accidents, especially for older drivers. The present study provides empirical support for the hypothesis that pedal misapplication occurs more frequently when drivers are interrupted for longer periods of time and is demonstrated more prominently in older drivers. METHODS: Forty younger participants and 40 older participants were asked to perform a pedal choice response task (stepping on either a brake or accelerator pedal) that had been preceded by an interruption task (i.e., touch number task). RESULTS: Pedal misapplications occurred more frequently when the pedal choice response task was preceded by the touch number task for a longer interval (about 120 s) than for a shorter interval (about 30 s). Furthermore, the time-related increase in pedal misapplications was greater for older participants. CONCLUSION: Pedal misapplication increases when the pedal task is interrupted for a longer time period, especially for older adults. APPLICATION: The findings contribute to our understanding of when and where pedal misapplications tend to occur.

Visual mismatch negativity is unaffected by top-down prediction of the timing of deviant events.

Visual mismatch negativity (VMMN) is an event-related brain potential component that is automatically elicited by infrequent (deviant) stimuli that are inserted among frequent (standard) stimuli (i.e., an oddball sequence). Although the elicitation of VMMN is basically determined in a stimulus-driven manner, it can be modulated by top-down control. In a previous study using a "patterned" oddball sequence, where deviant (D) stimuli were regularly inserted among standard (S) stimuli (i.e., repetitions of an SSSSD pattern), VMMN was largely reduced when participants noticed the SSSSD pattern and actively predicted both the identity and timing of the deviant stimuli compared to when they did not notice the SSSSD pattern and did not form such active prediction. The present study further investigated whether or not active prediction of only the timing of deviant stimuli is sufficient for the reduction of VMMN. With the patterned oddball sequence with one deviant (here, deviant stimuli were fixed throughout the block), VMMN was reduced when the participants noticed the SSSSD pattern and actively predicted both the identity and timing of deviant stimuli (i.e., replication of the previous finding). In contrast, with the patterned oddball sequence with two deviants (deviant stimuli were randomly varied between two possibilities), VMMN was not significantly reduced when the participants noticed the SSSSD pattern and actively predicted only the timing of deviant stimuli. These results suggest that active prediction of only the timing of deviant stimuli is not sufficient to reduce VMMN.

Exogenous induction of unphosphorylated PTEN reduces TGFß-induced extracellular matrix expressions in lung fibroblasts.

Transforming growth factor ß (TGFß) plays an important role in regulating aberrant extracellular matrix (ECM) production from alveolar/epithelial cells (AECs) and fibroblasts in pulmonary fibrosis. Although the tumor suppressor gene phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted from chromosome 10 (PTEN) can negatively control many TGFß-activated signaling pathways via the phosphatase activity, hyperactivation of the TGFß-related signaling pathways is often observed in fibrosis. Loss of PTEN expression might cause TGFß-induced ECM production. In addition, TGFß was recently shown to induce loss of PTEN enzymatic activity by phosphorylating the PTEN C-terminus. Therefore, we hypothesized that exogenous transfer of unphosphorylated PTEN (PTEN4A) might lead to reduce TGFß-induced ECM expression in not only epithelial cells but also fibroblasts. Adenovirus-based exogenous PTEN4A induction successfully reduced TGFß-induced fibronectin expression and retained ß-catenin at the cell membrane in human epithelial cells. Exogenous unphosphorylated PTEN also attenuated TGFß-induced ECM production and inhibited TGFß-induced ß-catenin translocation in a human fibroblast cell line and in mouse primary isolated lung fibroblasts. Conversely, TGFß-induced α-smooth muscle actin expression did not seem to be inhibited in these fibroblasts. Our data suggest that exogenous administration of unphosphorylated PTEN might be a promising strategy to restore TGFß-induced loss of PTEN activity and reduce aberrant TGFß-induced ECM production from epithelial cells and fibroblasts in lung fibrosis as compared with wild-type PTEN induction.

Sense of agency in continuous action: Assistance-induced performance improvement is self-attributed even with knowledge of assistance.

In a task involving continuous action to achieve a goal, the sense of agency increases with an improvement in task performance that is induced by unnoticed computer assistance. This study investigated how explicit instruction about the existence of computer assistance affects the increase of sense of agency that accompanies performance improvement. Participants performed a continuous action task in which they controlled the direction of motion of a dot to a goal by pressing keys. When instructions indicated the absence of assistance, the sense of agency increased with performance improvement induced by computer assistance, replicating previous findings. Interestingly, this increase of sense of agency was also observed even when instructions indicated the presence of assistance. These results suggest that even when a plausible cause of performance improvement other than one's own action exists, the improvement can be misattributed to one's own control of action, resulting in an increased sense of agency.

Hypoxia-induced modulation of PTEN activity and EMT phenotypes in lung cancers.

BACKGROUND: Persistent hypoxia stimulation, one of the most critical microenvironmental factors, accelerates the acquisition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotypes in lung cancer cells. Loss of phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted from chromosome 10 (PTEN) expression might accelerate the development of lung cancer in vivo. Recent studies suggest that tumor microenvironmental factors might modulate the PTEN activity though a decrease in total PTEN expression and an increase in phosphorylation of the PTEN C-terminus (p-PTEN), resulting in the acquisition of the EMT phenotypes. Nevertheless, it is not known whether persistent hypoxia can modulate PTEN phosphatase activity or whether hypoxia-induced EMT phenotypes are negatively regulated by the PTEN phosphatase activity. We aimed to investigate hypoxia-induced modulation of PTEN activity and EMT phenotypes in lung cancers. METHODS: Western blotting was performed in five lung cancer cell lines to evaluate total PTEN expression levels and the PTEN activation. In a xenograft model of lung cancer cells with endogenous PTEN expression, the PTEN expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. To examine the effect of hypoxia on phenotypic alterations in lung cancer cells in vitro, the cells were cultured under hypoxia. The effect of unphosphorylated PTEN (PTEN4A) induction on hypoxia-induced EMT phenotypes was evaluated, by using a Dox-dependent gene expression system. RESULTS: Lung cancer cells involving the EMT phenotypes showed a decrease in total PTEN expression and an increase in p-PTEN. In a xenograft model, loss of PTEN expression was observed in the tumor lesions showing tissue hypoxia. Persistent hypoxia yielded an approximately eight-fold increase in the p-PTEN/PTEN ratio in vitro. PTEN4A did not affect stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α. PTEN4A blunted hypoxia-induced EMT via inhibition of ß-catenin translocation into the cytoplasm and nucleus. CONCLUSION: Our study strengthens the therapeutic possibility that compensatory induction of unphosphorylated PTEN may inhibit the acquisition of EMT phenotypes in lung cancer cells under persistent hypoxia.

Direct regulation of transforming growth factor ß-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition by the protein phosphatase activity of unphosphorylated PTEN in lung cancer cells.

Transforming growth factor ß (TGFß) causes the acquisition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Although the tumor suppressor gene PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted from chromosome 10) can negatively regulate many signaling pathways activated by TGFß, hyperactivation of these signaling pathways is observed in lung cancer cells. We recently showed that PTEN might be subject to TGFß-induced phosphorylation of its C-terminus, resulting in a loss of its enzyme activities; PTEN with an unphosphorylated C-terminus (PTEN4A), but not PTEN wild, inhibits TGFß-induced EMT. Nevertheless, whether or not the blockade of TGFß-induced EMT by the PTEN phosphatase activity might be attributed to the unphosphorylated PTEN C-terminus itself has not been fully determined. Furthermore, the lipid phosphatase activity of PTEN is well characterized, whereas the protein phosphatase activity has not been determined. By using lung cancer cells carrying PTEN domain deletions or point mutants, we investigated the role of PTEN protein phosphatase activities on TGFß-induced EMT in lung cancer cells. The unphosphorylated PTEN C-terminus might not directly retain the phosphatase activities and repress TGFß-induced EMT; the modification that keeps the PTEN C-terminus not phosphorylated might enable PTEN to retain the phosphatase activity. PTEN4A with G129E mutation, which lacks lipid phosphatase activity but retains protein phosphatase activity, repressed TGFß-induced EMT. Furthermore, the protein phosphatase activity of PTEN4A depended on an essential association between the C2 and phosphatase domains. These data suggest that the protein phosphatase activity of PTEN with an unphosphorylated C-terminus might be a therapeutic target to negatively regulate TGFß-induced EMT in lung cancer cells.

Prosociality predicts changes in leisure activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several studies suggest that leisure activities enhance well-being. In line with this perspective, a recent study indicates that augmenting indoor leisure activities to compensate for diminished outdoor pursuits could sustain or enhance well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study was designed to identify personality traits that predict such behavioral shifts in indoor versus outdoor leisure activities during the pandemic. The present study included 657 participants (Mage = 41.08) and measured 12 personality traits that a previous study reported were associated with health-protective behaviors during COVID-19. Our findings indicate that the rise in indoor leisure activities correlated with prosocial tendencies toward family and friends/acquaintances (but not strangers), self-centered interest, resilience, and Big Five personality traits. Conversely, the decline in outdoor activities was linked solely to prosociality toward family and friends/acquaintances. Further interaction analysis uncovered that prosocial tendencies toward close relations predicted increased indoor activities as an alternative to outdoor engagements. We concluded that prosociality promoted behavioral changes that significantly prevented infections in intimate others, and it could maintain personal well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic by facilitating behavior change.

Unintentional temporal context-based prediction of emotional faces: an electrophysiological study.

The ability to extract sequential regularities embedded in the temporal context or temporal structure of sensory events and to predict upcoming events based on the extracted sequential regularities plays a central role in human cognition. In the present study, we demonstrate that, without any intention, upcoming emotional faces can be predicted based on sequential regularities, by showing that prediction error responses as reflected by visual mismatch negativity (MMN), an event-related brain potential (ERP) component, were evoked in response to emotional faces that violated a regular alternation pattern of 2 emotional faces (fearful and happy faces) under a situation where the emotional faces themselves were unrelated to the participant's task. Face-inversion and negative-bias effects in the visual MMN further indicated the involvement of holistic face representations. In addition, through successive source analyses of the visual MMN, it was revealed that the prediction error responses were composed of activations mainly in the face-responsible visual extrastriate areas and the prefrontal areas. The present results provide primary evidence for the existence of the unintentional temporal context-based prediction of biologically relevant visual stimuli as well as empirical support for the major engagement of the visual and prefrontal areas in unintentional temporal context-based prediction in vision.

Pulmonary hypertension as a prognostic indicator at the initial evaluation in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

BACKGROUND: The impact of pulmonary hypertension (PH) on survival has been demonstrated in severe cases with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) who were referred for transplantation. However, whether PH is a predictor of survival remains unclear in milder cases. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the survival impact of pulmonary artery pressure measured during the initial evaluation in patients with IPF. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the initial evaluation data of 101 consecutive IPF patients undergoing right heart catheterization. Patients evaluated with supplemental oxygen were excluded. Predictors of 5-year survival were analyzed using the Cox proportional model. RESULTS: The mean forced vital capacity (FVC) % predicted, diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) % predicted, and mean pulmonary artery pressure (MPAP) were 70.2 ± 20.1%, 47.9 ± 19.5%, and 19.2 ± 6.5 mm Hg, respectively. A univariate Cox proportional hazard model showed that the body mass index, %FVC, %DLCO, baseline PaO2, modified Medical Research Council score, 6-min walk distance, and lowest SpO2 of the 6-min walk test were significantly predictive of survival. The MPAP and pulmonary vascular resistance of right heart catheterization were also significant. With stepwise, multivariate Cox proportional analysis, MPAP (HR = 1.064; 95% CI 1.015-1.116, p = 0.010) and %FVC (HR = 0.965, 95% CI 0.949-0.982, p < 0.001) were independent determinants of survival. Analysis of the receiver operating curve revealed MPAP >20 mm Hg to be optimal for predicting the prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Higher MPAP and lower %FVC at the initial evaluation were significant independent prognostic factors of IPF. The current results suggested the importance of the initial evaluation of PH for patients with IPF.

Association between intentional behavioral changes and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The enforcement of nationwide lockdowns and social distancing measures severely restricted behavior and led to increases in stress, anxiety, and depression during the COVID-19 Pandemic. However, contrary to expectations, studies show that well-being did not decrease significantly during the Pandemic. The present study examined whether intentional increases in alternative behaviors contributed to maintaining well-being. We predicted an increase in indoor activities as alternatives to outdoor activities and that these behavioral changes contribute to maintaining well-being. Focusing on leisure activities, transport mode, and working environments, we tested these predictions in an online survey of 1,000 participants (M = 40.4 years; SD = 10.9). The results demonstrated that the decrease in outdoor leisure activities (e.g., traveling and shopping), use of public transportation, and working at office led to a reduction in well-being. It was also demonstrated that the subsequent increase in indoor leisure activities (e.g., exercising at home and online shopping) and use of a private car led to an increase in well-being, which supported our predictions. These results suggest that increasing alternative behaviors can maintain overall well-being during pandemics. These findings highlight the significance of intentional behavioral changes in maintaining well-being during pandemics.

Differential modulation of surfactant protein D under acute and persistent hypoxia in acute lung injury.

Hypoxia contributes to the development of fibrosis with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) via stimulation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) and de novo twist expression. Although hypoxemia is associated with increasing levels of surfactant protein D (SP-D) in acute lung injury (ALI), the longitudinal effects of hypoxia on SP-D expression in lung tissue injury/fibrosis have not been fully evaluated. Here, the involvement of hypoxia and SP-D modulation was evaluated in a model of bleomycin-induced lung injury. We also investigated the molecular mechanisms by which hypoxia might modulate SP-D expression in alveolar cells, by using a doxycycline (Dox)-dependent HIF-1α expression system. Tissue hypoxia and altered SP-D levels were present in bleomycin-induced fibrotic lesions. Acute hypoxia induced SP-D expression, supported by the finding that Dox-induced expression of HIF-1α increased SP-D expression. In contrast, persistent hypoxia repressed SP-D expression coupled with an EMT phenotype and twist expression. Long-term expression of HIF-1α caused SP-D repression with twist expression. Ectopic twist expression repressed SP-D expression. The longitudinal observation of hypoxia and SP-D levels in ALI in vivo was supported by the finding that HIF-1α expression stabilized by acute hypoxia induced increasing SP-D expression in alveolar cells, whereas persistent hypoxia induced de novo twist expression in these cells, causing repression of SP-D and acquisition of an EMT phenotype. Thus this is the first study to demonstrate the molecular mechanisms, in which SP-D expression under acute and persistent hypoxia in acute lung injury might be differentially modulated by stabilized HIF-1α expression and de novo twist expression.

Investigation of the optimal time interval between task-irrelevant auditory probes for evaluating mental workload in the shortest possible time.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by auditory stimuli unrelated to a current visual-cognitive task (i.e., task-irrelevant auditory probes) can be used to evaluate the level of mental workload. Towards the evaluation of workload in the shortest possible time, the present study with a multiple-stimulus paradigm (Takeda and Kimura, 2014, Int. J. Psychophysiol.) examined whether manipulating time intervals between probes could improve the temporal resolution in evaluating workload. Probes were presented in four interval conditions as a combination of two mean interval lengths [long (600 ms) vs. short (300 ms)] and two interval variabilities [variable (five levels) vs. fixed], while participants were performing a driving game at slow and fast speeds (i.e., imposing low and high workload, respectively). For each interval condition, the minimum data length required to obtain a significant difference in the amplitude of ERPs (i.e., auditory N1 and P2) between the slow and fast driving tasks was estimated. The N1 difference was significant in all four interval conditions but the required minimum data lengths to observe this difference did not greatly differ across the interval conditions (about 60-90 s). The P2 difference was significant only in the long-variable condition and the required minimum data length was about 120 s. These results suggest that, at least with a multiple-stimulus paradigm, manipulations of time intervals between probes did not greatly improve the temporal resolution in evaluating mental workload; at present, long-variable intervals would be optimal for evaluating mental workload in detail.

Effects of visuospatial implicit sequence learning on visual stimulus processing: Evidence from event-related potentials and neural synchrony.

A previous study reported that reaction times (RTs) and the amplitude of the P1 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by visual stimuli decreased during visuospatial implicit sequence learning in the serial reaction time task, suggesting that sequence learning reduces attentional demands on visual stimulus processing. In the present study, to evaluate the replicability of the previous finding and to obtain a better understanding of how visual stimulus processing is affected by visuospatial implicit sequence learning, we measured ERPs and neural synchrony from 44 participants during a modified serial reaction time task which controlled for a possible confounding factor in the previous study (i.e., arousal). The results indicated that RTs and neural synchrony of the lower frequency band (22-34 Hz) decreased for a learned sequence, whereas no significant effects on the amplitudes of P1, N1, and P3 components of ERPs were observed. These results suggest that attentional demands on visual stimulus processing can be reduced by visuospatial implicit sequence learning, as suggested by the previous study, but stimulus-locked ERPs may not be sensitive enough to reflect such learning effects.

Detection of deviance in Japanese kanji compound words.

Reading fluency is based on the automatic visual recognition of words. As a manifestation of the automatic processing of words, an automatic deviance detection of visual word stimuli can be observed in the early stages of visual recognition. To clarify whether this phenomenon occurs with Japanese kanji compounds-since their lexicality is related to semantic association-we investigated the brain response by utilizing three types of deviants: differences in font type, lexically correct or incorrect Japanese kanji compound words and pseudo-kanji characters modified from correct and incorrect compounds. We employed magnetoencephalography (MEG) to evaluate the spatiotemporal profiles of the related brain regions. The study included 22 adult native Japanese speakers (16 females). The abovementioned three kinds of stimuli containing 20% deviants were presented during the MEG measurement. Activity in the occipital pole region of the brain was observed upon the detection of font-type deviance within 250 ms of stimulus onset. Although no significant activity upon detecting lexically correct/incorrect kanji compounds or pseudo-kanji character deviations was observed, the activity in the posterior transverse region of the collateral sulcus (pCoS)-which is a fusiform neighboring area-was larger when detecting lexically correct kanji compounds than when detecting pseudo-kanji characters. Taken together, these results support the notion that the automatic detection of deviance in kanji compounds may be limited to a low-level feature, such as the stimulus stroke thickness.

Prediction, Suppression of Visual Response, and Modulation of Visual Perception: Insights From Visual Evoked Potentials and Representational Momentum.

When a visual object changes its position along with certain sequential regularities, the visual system rapidly and automatically forms a prediction regarding the future position of the object based on the regularities. Such prediction can drastically alter visual perception. A phenomenon called representational momentum (RM: a predictive displacement of the perceived final position of a visual object along its recent regular pattern) has provided extensive evidence for the predictive modulation of visual perception. The purpose of the present study was to identify neural effects that could explain individual differences in the strength of the predictive modulation of visual perception as measured by RM. For this purpose, in two experiments with a conventional RM paradigm where a bar was discretely presented in a regular rotation manner (with a step of 18° in Experiment 1 and a step of 20° in Experiment 2), visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in response to the regularly rotated bar were measured, and correlations between the magnitudes of RM and VEPs were examined. The results showed that the magnitudes of RM and central P2 were negatively correlated, consistently in both experiments; participants who showed a smaller central P2 tended to exhibit greater RM. Together with a previous proposal that central P2 would represent delayed reactivation of lower visual areas around the striate and prestriate cortices via reentrant feedback projections from higher areas, the present results suggest that greater suppression of delayed reactivation of lower visual areas (as indicated by smaller central P2) may underlie stronger predictive modulation of visual perception (as indicated by greater RM).

Attenuation of auditory N2 for self-modulated tones during continuous actions.

Event-related potentials elicited by tones generated by one's own discrete actions (e.g., button presses) are attenuated compared to those elicited by tones generated externally. The present study investigated whether ERP attenuation would occur when the timing or pitch of tones is modulated by continuous actions, as for such actions, a weak association between actions and their auditory consequences is assumed. In a modulation condition, participants modulated the time interval between tones (Experiment 1) or the pitch of tones (Experiment 2) by turning a steering wheel. In a listening condition, participants listened to the same tones as in the modulation condition without any action. The results revealed that the amplitude of N2 elicited by tones decreased in the modulation compared to listening conditions, consistently in the two experiments, suggesting relatively higher-order auditory processing can be mainly influenced by the prediction of action consequences when continuous actions modulate features of auditory stimuli.

Human visual system automatically encodes sequential regularities of discrete events.

For our adaptive behavior in a dynamically changing environment, an essential task of the brain is to automatically encode sequential regularities inherent in the environment into a memory representation. Recent studies in neuroscience have suggested that sequential regularities embedded in discrete sensory events are automatically encoded into a memory representation at the level of the sensory system. This notion is largely supported by evidence from investigations using auditory mismatch negativity (auditory MMN), an event-related brain potential (ERP) correlate of an automatic memory-mismatch process in the auditory sensory system. However, it is still largely unclear whether or not this notion can be generalized to other sensory modalities. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the contribution of the visual sensory system to the automatic encoding of sequential regularities using visual mismatch negativity (visual MMN), an ERP correlate of an automatic memory-mismatch process in the visual sensory system. To this end, we conducted a sequential analysis of visual MMN in an oddball sequence consisting of infrequent deviant and frequent standard stimuli, and tested whether the underlying memory representation of visual MMN generation contains only a sensory memory trace of standard stimuli (trace-mismatch hypothesis) or whether it also contains sequential regularities extracted from the repetitive standard sequence (regularity-violation hypothesis). The results showed that visual MMN was elicited by first deviant (deviant stimuli following at least one standard stimulus), second deviant (deviant stimuli immediately following first deviant), and first standard (standard stimuli immediately following first deviant), but not by second standard (standard stimuli immediately following first standard). These results are consistent with the regularity-violation hypothesis, suggesting that the visual sensory system automatically encodes sequential regularities. In combination with a wide range of auditory MMN studies, the present study highlights the critical role of sensory systems in automatically encoding sequential regularities when modeling the world.

Age-related differences in correction behavior for unintended acceleration.

Although unintended acceleration caused by pedal misapplication is a cause of traffic accidents, fatal accidents may be avoided if drivers realize their error immediately and quickly correct how they are stepping on the pedal. This correction behavior may decline with age because the rate of fatal accidents is fairly higher for older adults than for younger adults. To investigate this possibility, the present study recruited older adults (n = 40, age range = 67-81 years) as well as younger adults (n = 40, age range = 18-32 years). In this study, they performed a pedal stepping task during which they were required to stop the simulated vehicle as quickly as possible when a red signal was presented on a monitor. During most trials, the vehicle decelerated/stopped when the brake pedal was applied in a normal manner. In a few trials, however, stepping on the brake pedal resulted in sudden acceleration of the vehicle (i.e., the occurrence of the unintended acceleration); when this occurred, the participants had to release the pedal and re-step on another pedal to decelerate/stop the vehicle as quickly as possible. We focused on the age-related differences of the reaction latencies during three time periods: from the appearance of the red signal on the screen until stepping on the pedal (Period 1), from stepping on the pedal until the release of the pedal (Period 2), and from the release of the pedal until re-stepping of another pedal (Period 3). The results showed that there was no age-related difference in the latency of Period 1, p = .771, whereas those of Periods 2 and 3 were longer for the older adults (ps < .001). The results suggest that there are age-related differences in error detection and correction abilities under unintended situations with foot pedal manipulation.

Effects of one-pedal automobile operation on the driver's emotional state and cognitive workload.

A one-pedal system for operating an electric vehicle allows drivers to flexibly accelerate and decelerate (and even stop) by using just an accelerator pedal. Based on previous findings, one-pedal operation is considered to have the potential to increase positive emotions and decrease cognitive workload. To test this possibility, the present study compared the emotional state and cognitive workload between one-pedal and conventional two-pedal operation. Participants drove a vehicle on public roads, and driving enjoyment (i.e., pleasure and immersion) and the cognitive workload (i.e., ease and effortlessness) were assessed by means of questionnaires. In addition, physiological variations associated with driving pleasure and difficulty were assessed by electroencephalography (EEG). Both the questionnaire and EEG results revealed an increase in driving enjoyment in one-pedal operation. On the other hand, only the EEG results suggested a decrease in the cognitive workload in one-pedal operation; the questionnaire results did not show a significant difference between the pedal conditions. These findings support the notion that one-pedal operation has a positive influence on the driver's mental state, though its influence on the cognitive workload will require further investigation. We discuss future directions toward a better understanding of the effects of one-pedal operation on the driver's mental state.

Action-induced adjustment of prediction explains no visual mismatch negativity to self-generated deviants.

Visual mismatch negativity (VMMN) is an event-related brain potential component elicited by infrequent deviant events embedded among frequent standard events in a visual stimulus sequence. Although VMMN is known to be elicited by deviant events in a stimulus-driven manner, it was recently shown that VMMN can be drastically affected by the participant's voluntary action. With a paradigm in which participants were required to press one button frequently (about 90%) and another button infrequently (10%) in random order, and produce a visual stimulus sequence consisting of deviant and standard events, VMMN was elicited by deviant events triggered by the frequently-performed button press that should generate a standard event, but not by deviant events triggered by the infrequently-performed button press that should generate a corresponding deviant event. The present study replicated these previous findings and further demonstrated that VMMN was elicited by deviant events triggered by the infrequently-performed button press that should generate a different deviant event. These results support the hypothesis that VMMN-generating processes can be adjusted according to the participant's voluntary action, and rule out an alternative hypothesis that VMMN-generating processes are terminated when participants change their action. This adjustment is thought to be implemented so that self-generated deviants that carry no novel information are discarded, while externally-generated deviants that may carry novel information are selectively detected.