Exploring the association between working memory and driving performance in Parkinson's disease

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Human Factors
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Parkinson's disease (PD) affects motor and cognitive functions, potentially impacting driving.
• Assessing driving fitness in individuals with PD requires understanding how cognitive demands affect performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if varying operational and tactical driving task demands differentially impact sign recall in drivers with PD compared to controls.
• To evaluate the utility of driving simulators in assessing cognitive functions related to driving in PD.

Main Methods:

• A driving simulator was used to measure sign recall performance.
• Participants included 10 drivers with PD and 10 age- and sex-matched controls (aged 50-70).
• Task demand levels were varied, including cognitive tasks requiring working memory.

Main Results:

• Control drivers exhibited better sign recall than PD drivers, though not statistically significant (P = .43).
• All participants showed decreased sign recall with increased task demand (P = .03).
• This performance decline was significant when task demand involved cognitive load and working memory.

Conclusions:

• Driving simulators show promise for examining cognitive functions underlying driving performance in PD.
• While tentative, findings support using simulators with functional assessments for evaluating driving fitness in PD.
• A multitiered system combining simulator data with physical, visual, and cognitive assessments could aid in determining medical fitness to drive.