Railway drivers’ physiological responses to typical hazardous scenarios: differences between professional drivers and student drivers

Unexpected object intrusions on railways present significant safety hazards that can lead to accidents, injuries, and operational disruptions. Railway drivers serve as the critical final line of defense in accident prevention, it is very necessary to study railway drivers' physiological responses to unexpected object intrusions. Existing studies primarily addresses behavioral responses, with few considering drivers' physiological cognition responses. This study recruited both professional railway drivers and student participants to investigate drivers' physiological responses to different hazardous scenarios. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected during driving tasks across four typical hazardous scenarios for time-domain and frequency-domain analyses. Results revealed that professional drivers exhibited greater efficiency in neural resource allocation, cognitive resource integration, executive control and decision-making, as well as visual processing compared to student. Subjective hazard ratings were higher for drivers than for students, indicating greater perceived hazard. Professional drivers displayed distinct response patterns across different hazard scenarios: large-volume hazardous obstacles trigger sustained high cognitive load and executive control activation during the middle and later stages of hazard encounters, with moderate increases observed in the later stage, whereas small-volume hazardous obstacles elicit elevated cognition that remains stable upon hazard detection. Dynamic hazard scenarios elicited stronger visuospatial activation in drivers. Additionally, higher speeds imposed greater cognitive demands on drivers, with enhanced activation of brain regions associated with executive function, control, and decision-making observed during the early stage of hazard encounters. This study advances understanding of expertise-driven neurophysiological responses and provides evidences for developing targeted training programs and neurocognitive frameworks for railway safety enhancement.