Design of a Large Driving Simulator Experiment on Performance of Drivers with Cerebral Diseases

This paper presents the design of a large driving simulator experiment aiming to assess the effect of cerebral diseases on driver performance. The experiment was designed by an interdisciplinary team, including neurologists, neuropsychologists and transportation engineers. The pathologies considered include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cerebrovascular disease and Mild Congitive Impairment. The sample consists of both healthy and impaired drivers, with oversampling of the >55 years age group, in which these conditions are more prevalent. A total sample of 300 drivers will be examined within a 2 years period. The experiment consists of three types of assessment: (i) clinical medical and neurological assessment, (ii) neuropsychological assessment by means of appropriate tools, and (iii) driving simulation experiment. The driving simulator experiment in particular consists of three parts. The first and second part, in rural and urban area respectively, includes scenarios where driver performance is measured in ‘typical’ and ‘distracted’ driving conditions, at moderate or high traffic, in a within-subject design. The third part, concerns a test of basic driver skills at operational level, for specific tasks. Driver performance is examined in terms of both traffic (e.g. speed, lateral position etc.) and safety (e.g. reaction time) parameters. Preliminary results from the pilot-testing phase (25 drivers, out of which 18 impaired) already suggest detectable differences in specific performance measures between healthy and impaired drivers. Parkinson’s disease patients in particular show the most impaired driving performance. The results of this research extend existing knowledge on impaired driving mechanisms and driving performance due to cerebral diseases, as well as on the methods for designing and conducting related simulator experiments (e.g. for other pathologies, fatigue, alcohol, etc.).