Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 15, 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
Visuospatial and Attentional Abilities Predict Driving Simulator Performance Among Older HIV-infected Adults
J M Foley1, A L Gooding, A D Thames
1VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA. jessicafoley@gmail.com
Objectives:
To examine the effects of aging and neuropsychological (NP) impairment on driving simulator performance within a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected cohort.
Methods:
Participants included 79 HIV-infected adults (n = 58 > age 50, n = 21 ≤ 40) who completed a NP battery and a personnel computer-based driving simulator task. Outcome variables included total completion time (time) and number of city blocks to complete the task (blocks).
Results:
Compared to the younger group, the older group was less efficient in their route finding (blocks over optimum: 25.9 [20.1] vs 14.4 [16.9]; P = .02) and took longer to complete the task (time: 1297.6 [577.6] vs 804.4 [458.5] seconds; P = .001). Regression models within the older adult group indicated that visuospatial abilities (blocks: b = -0.40, P <.001; time: b = -0.40, P = .001) and attention (blocks: b = -0.49, P = .001; time: b = -0.42, P = .006) independently predicted simulator performance. The NP-impaired group performed more poorly on both time and blocks, compared to the NP normal group.
Conclusions:
Older HIV-infected adults may be at risk of driving-related functional compromise secondary to HIV-associated neurocognitive decline.
