Ability of elderly drivers to respond risky driving situations : Using near-infrared spectroscopy

对老年人的驾驶性能进行适当的评价是十分重要的。近红外光谱（NIRS）研究了阿尔茨海默病患者和健康老年人在驾驶模拟器上的脑功能差异。在驾驶任务（避碰）中，用近红外光谱测量了每个受试者前额叶区域的血红蛋白水平变化。与健康对照组相比，阿尔茨海默病组在避免碰撞任务期间前额叶皮层的血红蛋白增加不太明显。制动延迟与血红蛋白变化之间的相关性在健康对照组为正相关，而在阿尔茨海默病组为负相关，这表明任务相关的前额叶血红蛋白增加在正常和病理条件下具有不同的含义。近红外光谱是一种潜在的有用工具，可以实时监测模拟或实际驾驶期间的前额叶活动。

It is important to appropriately evaluate the driving performance of elderly persons. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was employed to investigate differences of brain function between individuals with Alzheimer's disease and healthy elderly controls while they were being tested using a driving simulator. Changes of the oxyhemoglobin level in the prefrontal areas of each subject were measured by NIRS during a driving task (collision avoidance). Compared with healthy controls, the Alzheimer's disease group showed a less prominent increase of oxyhemoglobin in the prefrontal cortex during the collision avoidance task. The correlation between delay in braking and changes of oxyhemoglobin was positive in the healthy controls and negative in the Alzheimer's disease group, suggesting that a task-related prefrontal increase of oxyhemoglobin has different implications under normal and pathological conditions. NIRS is a potentially useful tool for real-time monitoring of prefrontal activity during simulated or actual driving.