Attention and Brain Function Monitor for Elderly Drivers

描述（由申请人提供）：老年司机每英里的死亡率高于25岁以下男性以外的任何群体。年轻司机的事故通常是由于缺乏经验或冒险行为造成的，而老年司机的事故往往与注意力不集中或反应迟缓有关，尤其是那些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。鉴于老年司机在人口中所占比例迅速增加，这一群体的机动车事故问题正在成为一个重大的公共卫生问题，也是旨在更好地了解其原因和尽量减少其后果的研究的一个重要课题。该项目旨在开发一种使能技术，以帮助填补目前关于老年司机大脑功能知识的关键空白。特别是，在人机交互过程中脑功能监测方法的发展进展导致了敏感的，高度自动化的，基于eec的方法的创建，适用于测量操作复杂的，基于计算机的系统的成人受试者的认知神经生理信号。本项目将尝试推广这些方法，以便在模拟驾驶过程中对老年受试者进行脑功能监测。第一阶段将确定拟议系统在科学及技术上的可行性。特别是，利用我们在其他近期项目中的成功，我们计划评估与在老年人中使用此类方法相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，将在第二阶段实施和测试。所提出的系统将使大规模的研究具有成本效益，研究老年人在不同类型的驾驶场景中如何集中和保持注意力，以及最有可能与事故或不稳定表现相关的神经生理活动模式。同样的潜在信号处理技术可以用于评估和改进旨在提高驾驶时注意力和警觉性的治疗干预措施。鉴于驾驶机动车辆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.