Wearing a bike helmet leads to less cognitive control, revealed by lower frontal midline theta power and risk indifference

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dc.contributor.authorSchmidt, Barbara
dc.contributor.authorKessler, Luisa
dc.contributor.authorHolroyd, Clay B.
dc.contributor.authorMiltner, Wolfgang H. R.
dc.date.accessioned2020-07-10T16:34:23Z
dc.date.copyright2019en_US
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractA recent study claims that participants wearing a bike helmet behave riskier in a computerā€based risk task compared to control participants without a bike helmet. We hypothesized that wearing a bike helmet reduces cognitive control over risky behavior. To test our hypothesis, we recorded participants' EEG brain responses while they played a risk game developed in our laboratory. Previously, we found that, in this risk game, anxious participants showed greater levels of cognitive control as revealed by greater frontal midline theta power, which was associated with less risky decisions. Here, we predicted that cognitive control would be reduced in the helmet group, indicated by reduced frontal midline theta power, and that this group would prefer riskier options in the risk game. In line with our hypothesis, we found that participants in the helmet group showed significantly lower frontal midline theta power than participants in the control group, indicating less cognitive control. We did not replicate the finding of generally riskier behavior in the helmet group. Instead, we found that participants chose the riskier option in about half of trials, no matter how risky the other option was. Our results suggest that wearing a bike helmet reduces cognitive control, as revealed by reduced frontal midline theta power, leading to risk indifference when evaluating potential behaviors.en_US
dc.description.embargo2020-08-14
dc.description.reviewstatusRevieweden_US
dc.description.scholarlevelFacultyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipWe thank Elisa Hoffmann, Jona Ebker, Saskia Rƶssel, Sophieā€Marie Rostalski, Tabitha Mantey, and Cerstin Seyboldt for help with data acquisition and Holger Hecht for programming the experiment. We are also grateful to Martin Pƶtter who loaned us the bike helmet with mounted eyeā€tracking device from SMI for the duration of the experiment. Further, we thank Lutz Leistritz and Florian Wickelmaier who helped with statistical issues.en_US
dc.identifier.citationSchmidt, B., Kessler, L., Holroyd, C. B., & Miltner, W. H. R. (2019). Wearing a bike helmet leads to less cognitive control, revealed by lower frontal midline theta power and risk indifference. Psychophysiology, 56(12), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13458.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13458
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/11915
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherPsychophysiologyen_US
dc.subjectcognitive control
dc.subjectEEG
dc.subjectfrontal midline theta
dc.subjecthelmet
dc.subjectrisk behavior
dc.subject.departmentDepartment of Psychology
dc.titleWearing a bike helmet leads to less cognitive control, revealed by lower frontal midline theta power and risk indifferenceen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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