Abstract
Patients with cerebrovascular disease are often drive a car. It is necessary for these patients to assess driving a car as Activities Parallel to Daily Living (APDL). The driver is affected by inertial forces of acceleration, deceleration, taking a curve and others. Especially, it is impossible for the trunk to resist the inertial forces. Accordingly, it is indispensable to assess the function of the trunk for a patient with cerebrovascular disease who drives a car. The analysis of the driving motion and the assessment of the physical function on the driving are difficult in a clinical setting. Moreover, there has been little research in the field of rehabilitation related to driving a car. To contribute to therapy of patients who drive a car, the function of the trunk of a driver were investigated in this report. The subject of this research was a healthy person. Electromyography (EMG) of the trunk muscles of the driver was recorded, and digital video tape recordings were synchronized with the EMG. The characteristic results were: 1) When the car cornered sharply, the muscle activity of the trunk muscles on the side contralateral to turning increased. 2) When the driver braked hard, the muscle activity of the internal oblique abdominus on the brake side increased. The results suggest that the trunk muscles and the internal oblique abdominus resist the centrifugal force and the shear force on the sacro-iliac joint.