Specific attention disorders in drivers with traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Objective: To highlight the impact of the increasing attentional load on performance of both normal drivers and drivers with traumatic brain injury.

Background: Patients with brain injury have a higher accident risk than people with no brain injury [1], probably as a result of persistent attention disorders.

Method: Ten patients and 10 paired controls took part in a computerized selective attention task involving specific attentional processes. They were asked to monitor a speedometer and to ignore sudden changes in the surrounding environment in three separate experimental situations involving different attentional load.

Results: Although, in the control situation, patients’ results were equivalent to controls’, they displayed specific disorders in more complex situations where the attentional load increased.

Conclusion: These difficulties may have a negative impact on real driving situations.

• Attention disorders
• attentional load
• attentional processes
• traumatic brain injury
• driving