Driving after brain injury: Does dual-task modality matter?

Virtual reality technology allows neuropsychologists to examine complex, real-world behaviors with high ecological validity and can provide an understanding of the impact of demanding dual-tasks on driving performance.

We hypothesized that a task imposing high cognitive and physical demands (coin-sorting) would result in the greatest reduction in driving maintenance performance.

Twenty participants with acquired brain injury and 28 healthy controls were included in the current study. All participants were licensed and drove regularly. Participants completed two standardized VRDS drives: (1) a baseline drive with no distractions, and (2) the same route with three, counterbalanced dual-tasks representing differing demands.

A series of 3 (Task)×2 (Group) ANOVAs revealed that the ABI group tended to go slower than the HC group in the presence of a dual-task, F (1, 111) = 6.24, p = 0.01. Importantly, the ABI group also showed greater variability in speed, F (1, 110) = 10.97, p < 0.01, and lane position, F (1, 108) = 7.81, p < 0.01, an effect driven by dual-tasks with both a cognitive and motor demand.

These results indicate that long-term driving difficulties following ABI are subtle and likely due to reduced cognitive resources.