P300 Amplitude Reflects Individual Differences of Navigation Performance in a Driving Task

Even though individual differences in navigation performance has been found in driving studies at behavioral level, few studies have explored the cognitive mechanisms of this individual difference at neural level with the technique of ERP (Event-related Potential). This study recruited two groups of navigators with good and poor navigation performance in a driving task and measured their P300 amplitude while two types of triggers were presented to subjects (intersections and street signs). Poor navigators showed larger P300 amplitude than good navigators on the left hemisphere, the right hemisphere, the temporal, the parietal and the occipital sites when intersection triggers were presented, and on the occipital site when street sign triggers were presented, reflecting different levels of mental resource needed to process the spatial information between these two groups.