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Assessment of Sensorimotor Function in Mouse Models of Parkinson's Disease
Published on: June 17, 2013
Impaired navigation in drivers with Parkinson's disease
Ergun Y Uc1, Matthew Rizzo, Steven W Anderson
1Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. ergun-uc@uiowa.edu
Brain : a Journal of Neurology
|August 10, 2007
Summary
Drivers with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience more navigation and safety errors while driving due to cognitive and visual impairments, not motor symptoms. This highlights risks for PD patients on the road.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Transportation Safety
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Navigating new routes demands significant cognitive resources, potentially impairing driving ability.
- Parkinson's disease (PD) affects cognitive functions crucial for driving, including attention and executive functions.
- Assessing driving performance in individuals with PD is vital for understanding and mitigating risks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate navigation and safety errors in drivers with Parkinson's disease (PD) during a route following task (RFT).
- To compare driving performance between individuals with PD and neurologically normal elderly drivers.
- To identify factors predicting navigational and safety errors in PD drivers.
Main Methods:
- Seventy-seven mild-moderate PD drivers and 152 controls performed cognitive, visual, and motor tests.
- All participants completed an on-road route following task (RFT) in an instrumented vehicle.
- Key outcomes included incorrect turns, time lost, and at-fault safety errors, adjusted for covariates.
Main Results:
- Drivers with PD exhibited significantly poorer performance on cognitive, visual, and motor tests.
- PD drivers made more incorrect turns (53.9% vs. 21.1%), got lost (15.8% vs. 2.0%), and committed safety errors (84.2% vs. 46.7%).
- Navigational and safety errors in PD drivers correlated with cognitive and visual deficits, not motor severity.
Conclusions:
- Drivers with PD demonstrate increased navigation and safety errors compared to controls.
- Impaired cognitive and visual functions, rather than motor deficits, are associated with driving errors in PD.
- Increased cognitive load in PD patients with limited reserves may degrade driving safety.
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