Cognitive Evaluation for Driving After a Stroke.

Overview

Driving is a common activity which is crucial for most adults. It allows a mobility that contributes to the physic and economic independence. Stroke is an accute process and relatively common in developed countries, and it consists in the abrupt interruption of blood supply anywhere in the brain. Suffering a stroke is a road risk factor, because leaves sequelae in the driver that may interfere with the necessary capacities (including cognitive abilities) for a security driving. For stroke survivors (as young as adults), the fact of stop driving interferes with the activities that provides independence in their lives, so the posibility of driving again woul mean a big step in their recovery. Driving is a complex activity that requires the proper functioning of cognitive and physical processes and functions, as well as appropriate behaviour to make good and quick decisions in different traffic situations. Within these cognitive and behavioural functions, we can talk about executive functions such as planning, cognitive flexibility or decision making; processing speed, praxis, perception, attention, memory, language comprehension and writing, and awareness of one's own abilities and deficits. Because of the complexity, relevance and number of cognitive processes required for safe driving, it is important to know and be able to measure the cognitive processes involved in the activity of driving. The main general objective of this project is to improve comprehension of cognitive elements that predict safe driving in patients who have suffered a stroke. This would allow the creation of a sensitive cognitive assessment protocol to determine the ability of people with stroke to drive again.

The aim of creating this protocol is to determine the tests that best predict safe driving after stroke. This protocol will be composed by different cognitive tools, classified in two categories: Off-Road tests and On-Road tests. 1\) In the Off-Road category there are two different parts: 1.a) One of these is "non-driving tests", in which we use cognitive tools that the scientific literature has shown to be predictive of safe driving, but which are not contextualised within the activity of driving. Perception is important for calculating distances as well as to distinguish between figure and background. "Visual Object and Space Perception Battery" (VOSP) will be administered to measure perception. It requires a good attentional orientation that encompasses the entire attentional field equally, in addition to sustained, selective and divided attention. So, for measure attention, we will use "The Used Field of View Test" (UFOV), "Trail Making Test" (Part A and B) and "Continuous Performance Test" (CPT). Mnesic abilities are essentials to record and maintain the memory while driving as well as the coding processes that allow the retention of visual information, or the working and prospective memory to remember the itinerary and the destination. For this purpose the "Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test" (PASAT) will be used. Executive functions are used to identify and solve new problems or situations quickly and effectively enough. To measure this, "Iowa Gambling Test", the "Five - Digit Test", and the "Spanish Weekly Planning Calendar Activity - 10" (Spanish WCPA-10) will be administered. In the reviewed literature on neuropsychological tests for predicting driving performance, there is a notable absence of references to motor and cognitive aspects related to practical driving. A test was proposed by experts during protocol development, combining subtests from "INECO Frontal Screening" and Luria's "Premotor Series" to address this gap. To assess personality-related aspects such as risk-taking, sensitivity to punishment and reward, the "Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire" (SPSRQ-20) and "Domain-Specific Risk-Taking" (DOSPERT) will be employed. Lastly, the "Psycho-technical driving test" will be used for a general cognitive screening. 1.b) In the other part of Off-Road category, "driving tests" (contextualised within the activity of driving) will be included. One of them is new creation scale called COMAP, a test of planning, within the strategic level. Another test is the global cognitive evaluation for driving ability called "Stroke Drivers´ Screening Assessment" (SDSA), which includes sub-tests of attention, semantic memory and spatial relations. The SDSA has been created and validated in the English context, so the proposal is to validate it in the Spanish population with brain damage.To evaluate the personality and risk estimation, we use "Multi-driving Styles Inventory" (MDSI), "Hazard Perception Test", "Risk Estimation Test". 2\) The On-Road category is composed of a newly created test called "EDEC" (Performance Assessment Driving), which will be validated both for simulator driving and for the driving test with a real car on an open circuit.