The Impact of Mindfulness Training on Driving Performance: A Prospective Controlled Longitudinal Study

Objectives: To investigate the impact of attention training, through mindfulness meditation, on driving performance.Design: Prospective, active-controlled, longitudinal study.Setting: A training and research institute in Paris.Participants: 186 healthy volunteers aged 20–35 years, with no previous attention or meditation training.Interventions: Two types of training were evaluated: the Mindfulness-Based Short Intervention (MBSI) and the Mindfulness-Based Mobile Intervention (MBMI). The MBSI cohort (n=57) participated in a 6-week online program consisting of six 1.5-hour sessions delivered by a trained instructor, combined with daily 20-minute audio-guided meditations in pairs. The MBMI cohort (n=61) engaged in autonomous pre-recorded audio-guided meditation practice using the Petit Bambou application, with an average frequency mimicking the general public’s use of 3–4 meditations per week, each lasting approximately 11 minutes. The control group (n=68) received no attention training.Main outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was evaluation of reaction time on a driving simulator in six different contexts (Exercises 1–6) before and after attention training. Comparison of MBSI and MBMI was a secondary outcome.Results: Compared with baseline, the MBSI cohort demonstrated statically significant improvements in mean reaction time and attentional performance in three driving exercises by up to 108 ms, 53 ms and 48 ms (p<0.001, p<0.001 and p=.005), and the MBMI cohort in twodriving exercises by up to 90ms and 40 (p=.002 and p<.001). Our study did not show any significant interaction between group and time and no significant difference between-cohort, but post hoc analysis showed a significant improvement in Ex5 of 48 ms in reaction time forMBSI only, p = 0.005 and no significance for MBMI, p = 0.75 or control, p = 0.09. In Ex1, 2 post hoc analysis showed significant improvement in reaction time for all groups for the MBSI, 108 ms, p < 0.001, as well as MBMI, 90 ms, p = 0.002 but with a result so close to the significance limit of p<0.05 for the control group, p = 0.046 that it could be considered not significant.Conclusions: Attention training through mindfulness meditation enhanced reaction time and potentially improved other measures of driving performance (i.e., attentional agility; peripheral vision; selective, sustained and executive attention; attentional fatigue), suggesting that meditation practice could be recommended as a preventive measure to improve driver safety