A Peripheral Motion Contrast Test for Prediciting Unsafe Older Driver Perfomance

描述(申请人提供)：对于一个正常的人来说，驾驶是他/她每天参与的最复杂和最危险的活动。事故统计数据显示，除新手司机外，65岁以上的司机涉及的事故比其他任何群体都多。此外，随着65岁以上的事故发生率每连续10年增加一到三倍，这一趋势变得更加糟糕。面临风险的不仅是司机和他们的乘客，还有整个社会，因为患有年龄相关功能缺陷的老年司机会与其他车辆、行人，有时甚至是建筑物相撞。医疗专业人员和执照审查员被社会视为防止这些事件发生的人，他们无法快速、有效和安全地识别出撞车风险较高的老年司机。聚集在这里的研究团队提议修改一项现有的基于计算机的技术，该技术过去曾被证明可以预测老年司机的危险驾驶表现。外围运动对比阈值(PMCT)测试是一项10分钟的外围运动检测测试(外围运动检测对于驾驶非常重要)。由于目前的测试长度被认为太长，在医学或执照审查员设置中很难管理，研究团队建议创建一个2分钟版本的测试；并使用一般的年轻(50岁)司机群体进行验证，并将其与他们在当前PMCT测试和其他普遍接受的强制选择视觉心理物理程序中的表现进行比较。此外，由于目标是创建一种工具来帮助检测潜在危险的老司机，老司机2分钟的PMCT测试分数也将与他们在高保真驾驶模拟器中的表现相关联。如果有效，这种方法可以用来识别潜在的高风险司机，通过培训他们采取安全的补偿策略来帮助他们克服动作处理缺陷，限制他们的特权，或者作为最后的手段，将他们从道路上移走。部署这项测试可以显著减少每年发生的机动车撞车事故、意外伤害和死亡的数量。 公共卫生相关性：驾驶能力功能受损导致的机动车撞车事故是一个重大的公共卫生问题。为此，联合研究小组建议改进现有的外围运动对比阈值技术，该技术在过去已被证明与高事故风险驾驶性能高度相关，特别是在老年司机中。虽然视觉外周运动对比度评估程序已经存在，但研究团队了解到测试时间太长，因此无法用于目标用户群体，如健康专业人员和执照审查员。这项测试将缩短为2分钟的版本，并被设计为一个独立的应用程序，可以在基于Windows的标准个人电脑上运行。如果有效，医疗专业人员可以使用这种方法来识别潜在的危险司机，通过培训他们采取安全的补偿策略来帮助他们克服动作处理缺陷，限制他们的特权，或者作为最后的手段，将他们从道路上移走。部署这项测试可以显著减少每年发生的机动车撞车事故、意外伤害和死亡的数量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): For a normal individual, driving is the most complex and dangerous activity that he/she will participate in on a daily basis. Accident statistics show that drivers above the age of 65 are involved in more accidents than any other group except novice drivers. Furthermore the trend gets worse as accident rates double then triple with each successive 10 year increase above the age of 65. At risk is not only the driver and their passengers, but society at large, as older drivers with age-related functional deficits collide with other vehicles, pedestrians, and sometimes even buildings. Medical professionals and licensing examiners, who are looked to by society to prevent these occurrences, have no ways to quickly, effectively, and safely identify older drivers with an elevated high risk of crash. The research team assembled here proposes to modify an existing computer based technology that has been shown in the past to predict dangerous driving performance in older drivers. The Peripheral Motion Contrast Threshold (PMCT) test is a 10 minute test of peripheral motion detection (peripheral motion detection being extremely important for driving). Because the current length of the test is perceived to be too long to easily administer in a medical or licensing examiner setting, the research team proposes to create a 2 minute version of the test; and validate it using a general population of younger (50-) drivers and comparing it to their performance on the current PMCT tests and other generally accepted forced-choice visual psychophysics procedures. Furthermore, since the goal is to create a tool to help detect potentially dangerous older drivers, older drivers' 2 minute PMCT test scores will also be correlated with their performance in a high fidelity driving simulator. If effective, this approach could be used to identify potentially high-risk drivers, assist them to overcome the motion processing deficit by training them to adopt safe compensatory strategies, limit their privileges, or as a last resort, remove them from the road. Deployment of this test could significantly reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes, unintentional injuries and fatalities that occur each year. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Motor vehicle crashes due to functional impairment of driving ability are a significant public health problem. For this effort the assembled research team proposes to improve upon an existing peripheral motion contrast threshold technology that has been shown in the past to have high correlation with high accident risk driving performance, particularly in older drivers. While a visual peripheral motion contrast assessment procedure already exist, the research team understands that the test is too long and therefore not usable by the target population of users such as health professionals and license examiners. The test will be shortened to a 2 minute version and be designed as a standalone application that can run on standard, Windows based personal computers. If effective, this approach could be used by medical professionals to identify potentially dangerous drivers, assist them to overcome the motion processing deficit by training them to adopt safe compensatory strategies, limit their privileges, or as a last resort, remove them from the road. Deployment of this test could significantly reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes, unintentional injuries and fatalities that occur each year.