If you’ve ever had to [--1--] the brakes to prevent an accident, you know that the time it takes to get your foot to that pedal can seem like an eternity. Now, German researchers [--2--] cut that reaction time by getting drivers’ brain waves to help stop the car. Their findings appear in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

When you’re [--3--], or doing anything physical, your brain knows what it wants you to do before your body swings into action. Most times, this minor delay between thinking and doing is no big deal. But when you’re moving at 60 miles an hour and the car in front of you [--4--], every fraction of a second counts.

Researchers recorded how quickly volunteers reacted when the lead vehicle in a driving simulator suddenly hit the brakes. Sensors monitored the subjects’ brain activity. Turns out drivers knew they needed to slow down more than a tenth of a second before they get [--5--] the brakes.

That might not seem like much, but if cars could read minds, they could stop 12 feet sooner at highway speeds. Which could mean the difference between a scare and a smash.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
slam on aim to behind the wheel stops short tap
剎車時(shí)的心想意動(dòng) 如果你經(jīng)歷過猛踩剎車以躲避車禍的經(jīng)歷，你才會(huì)體會(huì)到從你的腳夠到剎車踏板的時(shí)間是如此的漫長(zhǎng)。最近，德國研究人員打算通過司機(jī)的腦電波來控制剎車減少時(shí)間。他們的研究發(fā)表在《神經(jīng)工程學(xué)》期刊上。 當(dāng)我握方向盤或者做其他體力活時(shí)，我們的大腦就在我們的身體付諸行動(dòng)前知道我們想做什么。而大多數(shù)時(shí)候，這種介于想法和行動(dòng)之間的微小延遲是微不足道的。但是當(dāng)我們以每小時(shí)60米的速度移動(dòng)，我們前面突然停止時(shí)，每一毫秒都變得舉足輕重。 研究人員記錄下了志愿人員對(duì)前面的車輛在駕駛模擬器上的突然剎車的反應(yīng)速度，同時(shí)傳感器也監(jiān)測(cè)這受試人員的大腦活動(dòng)。結(jié)果表明司機(jī)在他們腳踩剎車的十分之一秒錢前久已經(jīng)知道自己應(yīng)該降速了。 這看起來似乎沒什么大不了的。但是如果汽車可以讀到我們的想法，它們就可以在以高速行駛的狀態(tài)下更早的剎車，節(jié)省出12英尺的距離。這可能就是恐慌和被撞的區(qū)別了。