Driving Characteristics of Persons with Aphasia

Abstract

  Michon (1985) and Watanabe (2016) proposed a driving model that encompasses the cognitive process of driving, which consists of cognition-prediction-judgment-operation. The model is largely divided into three levels : strategic level ; planning of driving, tactical level ; situation understanding, prediction and judgment, and operation decision, and operational level ; actual driving operation. The higher brain functions involved in each of the above are considered to be executive functions, and functions for recognizing the situation using visual and auditory sensory modalities, focusing attention and distributing attention, and executing the situation. The cognitive load in such driving behavior varies depending on the driving environment. In a comparison of neuropsychological tests between a group of patients with aphasia who could resume driving and a group of patients who did not resume driving, significant differences were found in the MMSE, BIT letter erasure, WAIS arithmetic, BADS zoo map, and modified 6 elements test. These results suggest that language function may influence driving behavior. In the comparison by BDAE, significant differences were found in MMSE, TMT-A and B, and WAIS digit symbol-coding. Although it is possible that the severity of the aphasia may affect the results, further investigation is needed.