Attention and Brain Function Monitor for Elderly Drivers

描述（由申请人提供）：老年驾驶员每英里驾驶的死亡率高于25岁以下男性以外的任何群体。相对于那些年轻司机，他们的事故往往是由于缺乏经验或危险行为造成的，涉及老年司机的事故往往与注意力不集中或反应迟缓有关，特别是对于经历药物副作用或患有可能影响表现的慢性健康状况的人。鉴于老年驾驶员在人口中的比例迅速增加，这一群体的机动车事故问题正在成为一个主要的公共卫生问题，也是一个重要的研究课题，旨在更好地了解其原因并尽量减少其后果。该项目旨在开发一种使能技术，有助于填补目前有关老年驾驶员大脑功能知识的关键空白。特别地，在人机交互期间用于脑功能监测的方法的开发中的进展已经导致创建了灵敏的、高度自动化的、基于EEC的方法，该方法适合于测量操作复杂的、基于计算机的系统的成年受试者中的认知的神经生理信号。本项目将尝试推广这些方法，使老年人在模拟驾驶过程中的脑功能监测。第一阶段将确定拟议系统的科学和技术可行性。特别是，利用我们最近在其他项目中取得的成功，我们计划评估与在老年人中使用这些方法有关的关键剩余科学和信号处理问题，并设计一个原型测量设备，该设备将在第二阶段实施和测试。拟议的系统将使成本效益的大规模研究，老年人的注意力是如何参与和保持在不同类型的驾驶场景，以及神经生理活动的模式最有可能与事故或不稳定的性能。同样的基础信号处理技术可用于评估和改进旨在提高驾驶期间注意力和警觉性的治疗干预。鉴于驾驶机动车的能力在帮助老年人保持独立和高质量生活方面发挥着重要作用，这种技术可能会有很大的市场。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Elderly drivers have a higher fatality rate per mile driven than any group other than males under 25. Relative to those younger drivers, whose accidents are often due to inexperience or risky behaviors, accidents that involve elderly drivers are frequently related to inattention or slowed responses, especially in individuals experiencing side effects from medications or who have chronic health conditions that might affect performance. Given the rapidly increasing proportion of elderly drivers in the population, the issue of motor vehicle accidents in this group is becoming a major public health concern and an important topic for research directed towards better understanding of its causes and at minimizing its consequences. This project aims to develop an enabling technology that will help to fill a crucial current void in knowledge about the brain function of elderly drivers. In particular, progress in the development of methods for brain function monitoring during human-computer interaction has led to the creation of sensitive, highly automated, EEC-based methods suitable for measuring neurophysiologic signals of cognition in adult subjects operating complex, computer-based systems. This project will attempt to generalize such methods to enable brain function monitoring in elderly subjects during simulated driving. Phase I will determine the scientific and technical feasibility of the proposed system. In particular, leveraging our success in other recent projects, we plan to evaluate key remaining scientific and signal processing issues related to use of such methods in the elderly, and to design a prototype measurement device that would be implemented and tested in Phase II. The proposed system would enable cost-effective large scale research studies of how an elderly person's attention is engaged and maintained during different types of driving scenarios, and the patterns of neurophysiologic activity most likely to be associated with accidents or unstable performance. The same underlying signal processing technology could be used to evaluate and refine therapeutic interventions aimed to improve attention and alertness during driving. Given the important role that the ability to operate a motor vehicle often plays in helping seniors to maintain independence and a high quality of life, there is likely to be a significant market for such technology.