Abstract
Aging is associated with a large heterogeneity in the extent of age-related changes in sensory, motor, and cognitive functions. All these functions can influence the performance in complex tasks like car driving. The present study aims to identify potential differences in underlying cognitive processes that may explain inter-individual variability in driving performance. Younger and older participants performed a one-hour monotonous driving task in a driving simulator under varying crosswind conditions, while behavioral and electrophysiological data were recorded. Overall, younger and older drivers showed comparable driving performance (lane keeping). However, there was a large difference in driving lane variability within the older group. Dividing the older group in two subgroups with low vs. high driving lane variability revealed differences between the two groups in electrophysiological correlates of mental workload, consumption of mental resources, and activation and sustaining of attention: Older drivers with high driving lane variability showed higher frontal Alpha and Theta activity than older drivers with low driving lane variability and—with increasing crosswind—a more pronounced decrease in Beta activity. These results suggest differences in driving strategies of older and younger drivers, with the older drivers using either a rather proactive and alert driving strategy (indicated by low driving lane variability and lower Alpha and Beta activity), or a rather reactive strategy (indicated by high driving lane variability and higher Alpha activity).
Highlights
Aging is associated with changes in perceptual, motor, and cognitive functioning [1]
As expected, driving lane variability differed between groups (F(2,39) = 9.54, p < .001, η2 = .33), and post-hoc t-tests confirmed that the Old-High group had a higher driving lane variability than the Old-Low group (p = .004), while the Old-Low group did not differ from the younger participants (Young) group (p = .768)
The posterior and fronto-central Theta power was stronger in the Young than Old-Low group (POz: F(1,26) = 7.04, p = .013, η2 = .21; FCz: F(1,26) = 19.34, p < .001, η2 = .43), while there were no significant main effects of crosswind level, and no interactions of crosswind level and group
Summary
Aging is associated with changes in perceptual, motor, and cognitive functioning [1]. Even in healthy aging these changes may have an impact on everyday behavior, especially on complex tasks like driving a car in dense traffic environments [2]. According to Anstey et al (2012) [3], vision and cognitive factors explain up to 83–95% of age-related variance in driving ability. Cognitive factors comprise slowing in response speed [4], problems in dividing and switching of attention [5, 6], declines of performance in dual- or multitask situations [7], and deficits in inhibition of irrelevant stimuli and of inappropriate responses in the driving context [2, 8].
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