[Safety measures in traffic; how risk compensation affects our behaviour].

In 2020, more than 600 people died as a result of a traffic crash in the Netherlands and 6,500 were hospitalized after they had sustained a serious injury (MAIS 3+). These numbers are much lower than those in the beginning of the seventies of the last century, when there were more than 3,000 road fatalities. To reduce the number of fatalities, many measures have been taken to avoid road crashes and reduce injury severity.

Driving Difficulties Among Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Disorders.

Background/objective: Neurodegenerative disorders impact fitness to drive of older drivers, but on-road driving studies investigating patients with different neurodegenerative disorders are scarce. A variety of driving errors have been reported in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but it is unclear which types of driving errors occur most frequently. Moreover, patients with other neurodegenerative disorders than AD typically present with different symptoms and impairments, therefore different driving errors may be expected.

Adherence to driving cessation advice given to patients with cognitive impairment and consequences for mobility.

Background: Driving is related to social participation; therefore older drivers may be reluctant to cease driving. Continuation of driving has also been reported in a large proportion of patients with cognitive impairment. The aim of this study is to investigate whether patients with cognitive impairment adhere to driving cessation advice after a fitness-to-drive assessment and what the consequences are with regard to mobility.

Assessing Fitness to Drive in Patients With Different Types of Dementia.

Dementia is a risk factor for unsafe driving. Therefore, an assessment strategy has recently been developed for the prediction of fitness to drive in patients with the Alzheimer disease (AD). The aim of this study was to investigate whether this strategy is also predictive of fitness to drive in patients with non-AD dementia, that is, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies.

Mobility scooter driving ability in visually impaired individuals.

Purpose: To investigate how well visually impaired individuals can learn to use mobility scooters and which parts of the driving task deserve special attention.

Materials And Methods: A mobility scooter driving skill test was developed to compare driving skills (e.g.

Vision-related fitness to drive mobility scooters: A practical driving test.

Objective: To investigate practical fitness to drive mobility scooters, comparing visually impaired participants with healthy controls.

Design: Between-subjects design.

Subjects: Forty-six visually impaired (13 with very low visual acuity, 10 with low visual acuity, 11 with peripheral field defects, 12 with multiple visual impairment) and 35 normal-sighted controls.

The Effects of Compensatory Scanning Training on Mobility in Patients with Homonymous Visual Field Defects: Further Support, Predictive Variables and Follow-Up.

Introduction: People with homonymous visual field defects (HVFD) often report difficulty detecting obstacles in the periphery on their blind side in time when moving around. Recently, a randomized controlled trial showed that the InSight-Hemianopia Compensatory Scanning Training (IH-CST) specifically improved detection of peripheral stimuli and avoiding obstacles when moving around, especially in dual task situations.

Method: The within-group training effects of the previously reported IH-CST are examined in an extended patient group.

Correction: The Effects of Compensatory Scanning Training on Mobility in Patients with Homonymous Visual Field Defects: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Assessing fitness to drive-A validation study on patients with mild cognitive impairment.

Objectives: There is no consensus yet on how to determine which patients with cognitive impairment are able to drive a car safely and which are not. Recently, a strategy was composed for the assessment of fitness to drive, consisting of clinical interviews, a neuropsychological assessment, and driving simulator rides, which was compared with the outcome of an expert evaluation of an on-road driving assessment. A selection of tests and parameters of the new approach revealed a predictive accuracy of 97.

Prediction of Fitness to Drive in Patients with Alzheimer's Dementia.

The number of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is increasing and so is the number of patients driving a car. To enable patients to retain their mobility while at the same time not endangering public safety, each patient should be assessed for fitness to drive. The aim of this study is to develop a method to assess fitness to drive in a clinical setting, using three types of assessments, i.

The Effects of Compensatory Scanning Training on Mobility in Patients with Homonymous Visual Field Defects: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Introduction: Homonymous visual field defects (HVFD) are a common consequence of postchiasmatic acquired brain injury and often lead to mobility-related difficulties. Different types of compensatory scanning training have been developed, aimed at decreasing consequences of the HVFD by changing visual scanning.

Aim: The aim of the present study is to examine the effects of a compensatory scanning training program using horizontal scanning on mobility-related activities and participation in daily life.

Difficulties in Daily Life Reported by Patients With Homonymous Visual Field Defects.

Background: Homonymous visual field defects (HVFD) are common after postchiasmatic acquired brain injury and may have a significant impact on independent living and participation in society. Vision-related difficulties experienced in daily life are usually assessed using questionnaires. The current study 1) links the content of 3 of these questionnaires to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and 2) provides analyses of vision-related difficulties reported by patients with HVFD and minimal comorbidities.

Behavioral adaptation of young and older drivers to an intersection crossing advisory system.

An advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) provided information about the right of way regulation and safety to cross an upcoming intersection. Effects were studied in a longer-term study involving 18 healthy older drivers between the ages of 65 and 82 years and 18 healthy young drivers between the ages of 20 and 25 years. Participants repeatedly drove 25 km city routes in eight sessions on separate days over a period of two months in a driving simulator.

Car driving performance in hemianopia: an on-road driving study.

Purpose: To study driving performance in people with homonymous hemianopia (HH) assessed in the official on-road test of practical fitness to drive by the Dutch driver's licensing authority (CBR).

Methods: Data were collected from a cohort (January 2010-July 2012) of all people with HH following the official relicensure trajectory at Royal Dutch Visio and the CBR in the Netherlands. Driving performance during the official on-road tests of practical fitness to drive was scored by professional experts on practical fitness to drive, using the visual impairments protocol and a standardized scoring of visual, tactical and operational aspects.

Longer-term effects of ADAS use on speed and headway control in drivers diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Objective: An advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) provided information about speed limits, speed, speeding, and following distance. Information was presented to the participants by means of a head-up display.

Methods: Effects of the information on speed and headway control were studied in a longer-term driving simulator study including 12 repeated measures spread out over 4 weeks.

Spontaneous recovery and treatment effects in patients with homonymous visual field defects: a meta-analysis of existing literature in terms of the ICF framework.

Homonymous visual field defects (HVFDs) are a common consequence of posterior brain injury. Most patients do not recover spontaneously and require rehabiliation. To determine whether a certain intervention may help an individual patient, it is necessary to predict the patient's level of functioning and the effect of specific training.

Intersection assistance: a safe solution for older drivers?

Within the next few decades, the number of older drivers operating a vehicle will increase rapidly (Eurostat, 2011). As age increases so does physical vulnerability, age-related impairments, and the risk of being involved in a fatal crashes. Older drivers experience problems in driving situations that require divided attention and decision making under time pressure as reflected by their overrepresentation in at-fault crashes on intersections.

Physical predictors of cognitive performance in healthy older adults: a cross-sectional analysis.

There is ample evidence that physical and cognitive performance are related, but the results of studies investigating this relationship show great variability. Both physical performance and cognitive performance are constructs consisting of several subdomains, but it is presently unknown if the relationship between physical and cognitive performance depends on subdomain of either construct and whether gender and age moderate this relationship. The aim of this study is to identify the strongest physical predictors of cognitive performance, to determine the specificity of these predictors for various cognitive subdomains, and to examine gender and age as potential moderators of the relationship between physical and cognitive performance in a sample of community-dwelling older adults.

Visuospatial asymmetry in dual-task performance after subacute stroke.

Various authors have referred to an association between neglect and non-spatial components of attention. It has been suggested that an increase in attentional load could exacerbate neglect symptoms and reveal subtle, well-compensated neglect. In the present study, 21 RH and 22 LH subacute stroke patients and 20 controls performed a computerized single-detection task (CVRT) and a dual task (CVRT-D) combining the detection task with a driving simulation task.

Impaired driving simulation in patients with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder and patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome.

Background: Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is considered to be responsible for increased collision rate and impaired driving simulator performance in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) patients. Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD) patients also frequently report EDS and may also have impaired driving capacities.

Methods: PLMD patients (n=16), OSAS patients (n=18), and controls (n=16) performed a monotonous 25-min driving simulation task.

Executive functioning in daily life in Parkinson's disease: initiative, planning and multi-task performance.

Impairments in executive functioning are frequently observed in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, executive functioning needed in daily life is difficult to measure. Considering this difficulty the Cognitive Effort Test (CET) was recently developed.

Complaints about impairments in executive functions in Parkinson's disease: the association with neuropsychological assessment.

Impairments in executive functions are frequently reported in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, little is known about patients' experience regarding these impairments. This knowledge is crucial because if patients do not experience their cognitive impairments they do not report them to their attending neurologist.

Subjective and objective assessment of executive functions in Parkinson's disease.

Impairments in executive functions (EF) in Parkinson's disease (PD) will have a negative influence on daily life. For the assessment objective and subjective measurement approaches are used. It is however unknown whether these approaches contribute in a different way to the assessment of EF in PD.

When family looks strange and strangers look normal: a case of impaired face perception and recognition after stroke.

We describe a patient (JS) with impaired recognition and distorted visual perception of faces after an ischemic stroke. Strikingly, JS reports that the faces of family members look distorted, while faces of other people look normal. After neurological and neuropsychological examination, we assessed response accuracy, response times, and skin conductance responses on a face recognition task in which photographs of close family members, celebrities and unfamiliar people were presented.

Conscious and unconscious processing of fear after right amygdala damage: a single case ERP-study.

In this study, we describe a 58-year-old male patient (FZ) with a right-amygdala lesion after temporal lobe infarction. FZ is unable to recognize fearful facial expressions. Instead, he consistently misinterprets expressions of fear for expressions of surprise.