Daily HealthBeat Tip

Behind the wheel and on the phone.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Sometimes multitasking is a bad idea, and it appears that driving while talking on a cell phone is one of those times. A researcher at The Johns Hopkins University says that even a hands-free cell phone could distract drivers.

Steven Yantis says the brain can't give full attention to looking and listening at the same time. He bases that on lab research in which people had to look at a computer while listening to voices in a headphone. He watched images of their brains as they tried.

Yantis says his findings could be a warning for people who should be looking where they're going while listening on a cell phone.

"Your response time in hitting the brake when you see a brake light or you see a critical event in a driving simulator is slowed when you are engaged in a complex cell phone conversation." (ten seconds)

His study in The Journal of Neuroscience was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August 15, 2005

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