EEG alpha spindles and prolonged brake reaction times during auditory distraction in an on-road driving study.

•Alpha spindles indicate active inhibition of visual information processing.•Alpha spindles are appropriate and robust to distinguish mental driver states during real-road driving.•Brake reaction times and alpha spindle rate increase while performing an auditory secondary task during real-road driving.•Single-trial analysis showed a classification error of 8% for the classification of two conditions driving only and driving with auditory secondary task.