Brain imaging methods have effectively revealed drivers' underlying psychological and neural processes when they perform driving tasks and promote driving behavior research in a more scientific direction. With research no longer limited to indirect inferences about external behavior, some researchers combine behavior and driver brain activity to understand the human factors in driving essentially. However, most researchers in the field of driving behavior still have little understanding of how brain imaging methods are used. This paper aims to review and analyze the application of brain imaging methods in driving behavior research, including bibliometric analysis and an individual critical literature review. Regarding bibliometric analysis, this field's knowledge structure and development trend are described macroscopically, using data such as annual distribution of publications, country/region statistics and partnerships, publication sources, literature co-citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis. In a review of the individual critical literature, eight research themes were identified that examined driving behavior using brain imaging methods: substance consumption, fatigue or sleep deprivation, workload, distraction, aging brains, brain impairment and other diseases, automated/semi-automated environments, emotions influence and risk-taking, and general driving process. In addition, the study reports on six brain imaging methods and their advantages and disadvantages, involving electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), magnetoencephalography (MEG), positron emission tomography (PET), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The contribution of this study is twofold. The first part relates to providing the researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the field's knowledge structure and development trends. The second part goes beyond reviewing and analyzing previous studies, and the discussion section points out the directions and challenges for future research.

With the popularization and application of conditionally automated driving systems, takeover requirements are becoming more and more frequent, and the subsequent takeover safety problems have attracted attention. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, combined with driving simulation experiments, to study in depth the effects of critical degree and monitor request (MR) 30 s in advance on drivers’ visual behavior, takeover performance and brain activation. Results showed that MR can effectively improve the driver’s visual and takeover performance, including visual reaction times, fixation frequency and duration, takeover time, and takeover mode. The length of the reserved safety distance can significantly affect the distribution of longitudinal acceleration. Critical or non-critical takeover has a significant impact on the change of pupil diameter and the standard deviation of lateral displacement. Five brain regions, including the middle occipital gyrus (MOG), fusiform gyrus (FG), middle temporal gyrus (MTG), precuneus and precentral, are activated under the stimulation of a critical takeover scenario, and are related to cognitive behaviors such as visual cognition, distance perception, memory search and movement association.