Driving Performance Profiles of Drivers with Brain Pathologies in Rural Roads

The driving ability can be affected by various motor, visual, cognitive and perceptual deficits which are either age-related or caused by neurologic disorders. More specifically, diseases affecting a person's brain functioning may significantly impair the person's driving ability. The objective of this paper is to examine the driving performance profiles of drivers with some brain pathology in rural driving environment, in low and high traffic conditions, by means of a driving simulator experiment. Various driving performance measures are examined, e.g. mean driving speed, lateral position, steering angle, headway and reaction time at unexpected events. The driving performance of patients with brain pathologies is compared to that of healthy controls. 114 participants of above 55 years of age have completed the experimental procedure. Results suggest that there are differences between the two examined groups. Patients drive at lower speeds, present higher lateral position variability, keep larger headways and demonstrate worse reaction times than the control group.