Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026
Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects
Published on: September 18, 2012
Evaluation of on-road driving in people with hemianopia and quadrantanopia
Jennifer Elgin1, Gerald McGwin, Joanne M Wood
1Driving Assessment Clinic, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 700 South 18th Street, Suite 609, Birmingham, AL 35294-0009, USA. jenwells@uab.edu
Objective:
To examine whether some drivers with hemianopia or quadrantanopia display safe driving skills on the road compared with drivers with normal visual fields.
Method:
An occupational therapist evaluated 22 people with hemianopia, 8 with quadrantanopia, and 30 with normal vision for driving skills during naturalistic driving using six rating scales.
Results:
Of drivers with normal vision, > 90% drove flawlessly or had minor errors. Although drivers with hemianopia were more likely to receive poorer ratings for all skills, 59.1%-81.8% performed with no or minor errors. A skill commonly problematic for them was lane keeping (40.9%). Of 8 drivers with quadrantanopia, 7 (87.5%) exhibited no or minor errors.
Conclusion:
This study of people with hemianopia or quadrantanopia with no lateral spatial neglect highlights the need to provide individual opportunities for on-road driving evaluation under natural traffic conditions if a person is motivated to return to driving after brain injury.
