Neuropsychological aspects of driving after a stroke?in the simulator and on the road

Abstract

Thirty patients with stroke and 30 matched controls participated in the study (mean age 68 years, mean interval since stroke onset 8.6 months). The patients performed significantly worse on cognitive and attentional processing measured by a neuropsychological test battery. The patients had significantly greater difficulty in allocating processing resources to a secondary information processing task during driving in an advanced simulator. The patients performed worse driving in real traffic, and had less driving skill; fifty per cent did not pass the driving test. The neuropsychological test battery showed a pattern with three factors: (1) attentional processing (2) executive capacity, and (3) cognitive processing. Regression models based on simulator driving variables and neuropsychological test variables respectively, overall classified correctly in 85% and 83% of the cases with respect to driving skill. Decreased cognitive and attentional processing were suggested to be associated with an overall speed impairment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.