Visuomotor strategies using driving simulators in virtual and pre-recorded environment

Drivers fix their gaze where they are planning to go. It is considered that steering is based on optic flow, the formation of visual motion at the moving eye. Different studies have analyzed the impact of visuomotor strategies on steering but, to our knowledge, few studies have compared visual strategies using similar urban video-projected environments. The aim of this study is to compare subjects’ visuomotor strategies on similar video-projected environments in a fixed-base driving simulator. Experienced car drivers are exposed to two visual environments: a real traffic urban scenario pre-recorded on video; and the 3D simulation of the same scene. The visual environment represents a district of the center of Paris, between the Louvre and the Opera. Subjects’ visual strategies are recorded using a binocular eye tracking system (Eyelink II). It is supposed that visuomotor strategies depend on the degree of similarity between both environments. The results indicate that eye movements differ between pre-recorded and virtual environment. Integration of information in the saccade buffer and visual attention control may explain these results.