Cognitive performance and neural correlates of detecting driving hazards in healthy older adults.
OBJECTIVE
In spite of the growing number of seniors who drive and their relatively frequent involvement in accidents, little is known about the cognitive substrates of road hazard recognition and their relationship with general cognitive performance in this population. We aimed to investigate, using a combination of functional MRI (fMRI) and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, the anatomical and cognitive components of driving hazard recognition.


METHODS
Fourteen healthy active drivers aged between 65 and 87 years underwent neuropsychological evaluation and fMRI scanning. fMRI was performed while subjects watched a video composed of clips of driving hazards randomly interspersed with uneventful driving clips. We investigated brain areas that are recruited for hazard detection, in contrast to brain areas responding to driving without a hazard. The performance on neuropsychological tests was then regressed with the degree of activation of cortical areas related exclusively to detecting hazards.


RESULTS
Driving hazards generated significant activations, compared to non-hazards, in the lateral associative occipital cortex and in the right prefrontal cortex. Intensity of brain activation was correlated on performance on memory and cognitive control neuropsychological tests.


CONCLUSIONS
Future studies can possibly address the same relationship in early dementia, as a preliminary form of investigation for driving safety.
Hirth
Victor A
VA
Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29203, USA. Victor.Hirth@Palmettohealth.org
Davis
Ben
B
Fridriksson
Julius
J
Rorden
Chris
C
Bonilha
Leonardo
L
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001334:Automobile Driving; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values