Engineering from the NTUA, aimed at assessing the driving performance of patients with neurological disorders that affect cognitive functions. Comparison of patients with neurological disorders affecting cognitive functions and the control group without neurological diseases.
Motivation
Furthermore, self-reported road accident involvement was correlated with future diagnosis of dementia (Lafont et al., 2008). Furthermore, the associated impairment of executive functions appears to have a significant effect on driving performance (Tomioka et al., 2009), especially when unexpected events occur.
Objectives and scope
Critical neurological diseases affecting cognitive functions were derived from the literature review, which included both conditions observed in the general population as well as those affecting various vulnerable groups, e.g. The analysis of the neurological diseases that affect cognitive functions and other demographic and neuropsychological characteristics in combination with the driving performance of the general population is a very crucial domain and a scientific challenge at the same time.
Methodology steps
Innovative scientific contribution and expected benefits
The scientific benefits relate to the improvement of existing knowledge about impaired driving mechanisms and driving performance under unexpected events, as well as methods for designing and conducting simulator experiments. The socio-economic benefits concern the improvement in road safety that will be achieved when the impaired driving mechanisms due to neurological diseases affecting cognitive functions are better understood and explicitly addressed.
Structure
Chapter 2 constitutes the main part of the entire literature review and consists of several parts. Starting with a review of driving behaviour parameters, an overview of
Chapter 5 presents the results of the modeling methodology that has been developed in order to achieve the objectives set out in this PhD thesis. The methodology
Driving
The origin of the term driver, as recorded from the 15th century onwards, refers to the profession of driving work animals, especially pack horses or draft horses. Many of his other inventions made possible the use of the internal combustion engine to power a vehicle.
Driving Behaviour and Road Safety
In this context, Regan et al. 2005) suggested that: “Driver inattention” refers to insufficient or no attention to activities that are critical to safe driving and. Furthermore, some studies report that external confounding factors account for less than 30% of all confounding factors (Stutts et al., 2001; Kircher, 2007). Other studies indicate that external confounding factors account for less than 10% of all confounding factors (Sagberg, 2001; MacEvoy et al., 2007).
Furthermore, a study conducted by Patel et al. 2008) examined perceived qualitative characteristics of 14 driver distractions. Rather, research has focused on identifying the particular performance impairments associated with distracting activities (Haigney et al., 2000).
Assessing driving behaviour
In on-road experiment studies, an instrumented vehicle is equipped with instrumentation to take recordings of a variety of aspects of driving (Rizzo et al., 2002) (Fig. 2.4). These studies are conducted by trained experts from multiple disciplines to gather as much useful information as possible, to be of greatest benefit to answering current research questions and any that may arise in the future (Wadley et al., 2009; Bowers et al., 2013; Okonkwo, 2009). On-road driving evaluations are generally considered the gold standard method for determining driving fitness (Odenheimer et al., 1994; Di Stefano & McDonald, 2003) as there is a high degree of control over the variables that influence driving behavior.
However, the direction and approximate magnitude of such bias can be ascertained and accounted for using carefully designed background questionnaires (Van Schagen et al., 2011). Simulator discomfort/sickness is another problem encountered with simulators and is particularly pronounced in older drivers (Papantoniou et al., 2013).
Driving simulator experiments
Managers do not believe in the authenticity of the simulation at a fundamental level and reactions are based on this perception. Hardware fidelity refers to the degree to which the simulator replicates the look and feel of the real world system, in terms of the layout of the vehicle cabin and the size, shape, color and position of the vehicle/system controls. Objective fidelity refers to the degree to which a simulator replicates its real-world counterpart in terms of dynamic cue timing and synchronization (eg, timing of the visual cues to match steering input).
The location of the in-vehicle system being evaluated, relative to the driver and the road, and the type and layout of its controls are also important. For starters, motion sickness appears to occur in a larger proportion of the population and tends to be more severe than simulator sickness.
Neurological diseases affecting cognitive functions
Finally, changes in scene content can influence the likelihood and severity of simulator sickness (Jones et al., 2004). Moreover, a key indicator of motion sickness, drowsiness, does not necessarily indicate simulator sickness (Kennedy et al., 1993). Petersen et al., (1995) described the concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a cognitive state that lies between normal aging and dementia.
About 70% of the risk is believed to be genetic with many genes usually involved (Ballard et al., 2011). The disease process is associated with plaques and tangles in the brain (Ballard et al., 2011).
Neurological diseases affecting cognitive functions and driving performance
Papageorgiou et al., (2014) indicated that neurological and neuropsychological measures are useful predictors in determining the performance indices of individuals with MCI. In contrast, Fox et al. (1997) did not find any correlation between the neuropsychological measures used (Visual Form Discrimination Test, Judgment of Line Orientation Test, Trail Making Test - Trails Trails A and B, BVRT and WAIS-R subtests). ) and an on-road driving evaluation. Similarly, drivers with Parkinson's who were characterized as unsafe based on their on-road driving performance had significant difficulties with Part B of the TMT (Grace et al., 2005).
Classen et al., 2009) found in PD patients that TMT Part B was significantly associated with overall driving performance and the number of driving errors during an on-road assessment. Conversely, the reduced driving performance of PD patients was associated with the functioning of various cognitive domains (Uc et al., 2007).
Synthesis of review findings
That is, this ensures that within-subjects designs are better able to detect an effect of the independent variable than between-subjects designs. Each experiment is based on a combination of conditions, which arise from the combinations of levels of the relevant variables. The complete combination of all levels of the relevant variables results in a complete factorial design.
Dropout due to simulator sickness: Simulator properties or simulator activities cause participants to become ill. All these potential threats must be considered in the design of the actual simulator experiment.
Dependent measures for simulator studies on older drivers
However, it is worth considering that compared to younger drivers, older drivers take longer to accelerate to the posted speed limit (Strayer & Drews, 2004) and to brake over longer distances ( Caird et al., 2007). Also, older drivers have a smaller pupil diameter (limiting the amount of light reaching the retina) and reduced contrast sensitivity. It has become increasingly common to use eye movement systems in driving simulator studies, but there are a number of pragmatic considerations that make it difficult to measure eye movements when testing older drivers (Trick & Caird, 2011 ).
In our experience, approximately three quarters of older drivers can be calibrated, but this depends on the system used and the acquisition of calibration expertise by research assistants (Caird et al., 2011). For example, detecting the position of the eye and gaze in relation to the environment can be difficult because many older drivers wear corrective lenses.
Neurological/neuropsychological assessment design principles
Given that the design of a neurological test battery is beyond the scope of this PhD thesis, the clinical neurological assessment should include the completion of basic scales corresponding to the domains presented in Table 3.2. A complete neuropsychological assessment is essential to assess the cognitive status of participants in a driving simulator experiment, especially including patients with neurological diseases that affect cognitive function. The selection of cognitive tests is in line with one of the main goals of neuropsychological design.
In line with this perspective, and given that the design of a neurological battery of tests is beyond the scope of this doctoral dissertation, the neuropsychological assessment in us. Driving Scenes Test - Neuropsychological Assessment Battery Visual-Spatial Perception Line Orientation Test - Repeatable Neuropsychology Battery.
Statistical analysis methodology
Specifically, for box plots, the line in the middle of the boxes is the median. A key point in the development of the GLM was the generalization of the normal distribution (on which the linear regression model is based) to the exponential family of distributions. The eigenvalues of the sample variance-covariance matrix X are the variances of the principal components.
Discard any components that account for a relatively small proportion of the variation in the data. The SEM model shown in the top of the figure implies a different variance - covariance matrix than the model shown in the bottom of the figure.
Synopsis of methodology
A central component of this PhD thesis is the design and implementation of a large driving simulator experiment. At the start, there is an overview of the driving simulator experiment, including details of the interdisciplinary research teams that contributed to the design of the experiment. In this chapter, the design of the driving simulator experiment is deeply investigated, as it constitutes an innovative component of the PhD thesis.
Moving on to the following chapters, the neurological and neuropsychological part of the experiment is presented, followed by the assessment with a questionnaire. In this part, all the different parts as well as the indicative questions of the questionnaire are presented.
Overview of the experiment
To investigate the validity of the current driving simulator, another similar research took place. A central component of the experimental design was the driving simulator scenario, which was programmed to simulate the interurban road task with high precision. In this framework, this section presents all individual parts of the design of driving scenarios.
Completing the checklist (see appendix) to review the trial with any comments related to anything unusual about the participant's driving. One researcher responsible for distraction tasks and statistical processing of the output data.
Neurological Assessment
PHQ-9
- Neuropsychological Assessment
- Self-stated driving behaviour questionnaire
- Sample characteristics
- Development of databases - data files and processing levels
The IQ CODE helps in confirming the patient's complaints about his/her cognitive deficits (mostly in the domain of memory). Scores reflect a sum of the total number of correct trials from the Forward and Backward conditions. The information provided in this section was related to the driving performance of the drivers in the different conditions of the driving simulator experiment.
The information provided by this section was specifically related to performance in the distraction conditions of the driving simulator experiment. In processing level "0" the original log files of the traffic session extracted from the trip at the simulator experiment are placed.