Leukoaraiosis Significantly Worsens Driving Performance of Ordinary Older Drivers

作者：Nakano Kimihiko^*; Park Kaechang; Zheng Rencheng; Fang Fang; Ohori Masanori; Nakamura Hiroki; Kumagai Yasuhiho; Okada Hiroshi; Teramura Kazuhiko; Nakayama Satoshi; Irimajiri Akinori; Taoka Hiroshi; Okada Satoshi

来源：PLos One, 2014, 9(10): e108333.

DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0108333

Background: Leukoaraiosis is defined as extracellular space caused mainly by atherosclerotic or demyelinated changes in the brain tissue and is commonly found in the brains of healthy older people. A significant association between leukoaraiosis and traffic crashes was reported in our previous study; however, the reason for this is still unclear.
Method: This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of driving performance in ordinary older drivers with leukoaraiosis. First, the degree of leukoaraiosis was examined in 33 participants, who underwent an actual-vehicle driving examination on a standard driving course, and a driver skill rating was also collected while the driver carried out a paced auditory serial addition test, which is a calculating task given verbally. At the same time, a steering entropy method was used to estimate steering operation performance.
Results: The experimental results indicated that a normal older driver with leukoaraiosis was readily affected by external disturbances and made more operation errors and steered less smoothly than one without leukoaraiosis during driving; at the same time, their steering skill significantly deteriorated.
Conclusions: Leukoaraiosis worsens the driving performance of older drivers because of their increased vulnerability to distraction.

• 出版日期2014-10-8