Auditory In-Vehicle Technologies to Support Older Drivers

OBJECTIVES Population aging, in combination with improved health care and more active lifestyles well into advanced age, have resulted in an increased number of older adults driving more miles than ever before. Unfortunately, these older drivers are over-represented in motor vehicle crashes and crash-related fatalities. Rather than the risk-tasking behaviors observed in young drivers, the collisions of older drivers frequently involve perceptual-cognitive errors. Advanced in-vehicle technologies have the potential to function as sensory-cognitive aids and may offset the negative impact of age-related changes in sensory and cognitive abilities. Collision Avoidance Systems (CASs) function as sensory aids to augment hazard detection capabilities, and therefore may be of particular benefit to older drivers. Navigation aids can offset the working memory requirements of wayfinding, and auditory guidance directions may reduce the visual demands of searching for street signs and reading maps. However, these advanced systems also have the potential to increase the information processing demands of the driving task or distract drivers, particularly if they are not designed in accordance with the sensory and perceptual capabilities of older adults. A series of experiments aimed at examining the impact of sensory-cognitive characteristics of auditory navigational aids on driver wayfinding, performance on a visual peripheral detection task, and neurophysiological, behavioral and subjective indices of driver mental workload and performance were conducted. METHODS Results of two investigations will be discussed. The first investigation examined the impact of amplitude level on working memory. Older adults frequently exhibit reduced complex working memory span. However, recent evidence indicates that increasing a sound’s amplitude increases its duration in echoic memory (Baldwin, in press). Based on these findings, we hypothesized that increasing the amplitude of verbal material would improve working memory efficiency. RESULTS In support of this hypothesis, a strong positive correlation between the amplitude level at which the verbal material was presented and complex working memory span as measured by a version of Daneman and Carpenter’s (1980) Listening span task was observed. This positive relationship OBJECTIVES Population aging, in combination with improved health care and more active lifestyles well into advanced age, have resulted in an increased number of older adults driving more miles than ever before. Unfortunately, these older drivers are over-represented in motor vehicle crashes and crash-related fatalities. Rather than the risk-tasking behaviors observed in young drivers, the collisions of older drivers frequently involve perceptual-cognitive errors. Advanced in-vehicle technologies have the potential to function as sensory-cognitive aids and may offset the negative impact of age-related changes in sensory and cognitive abilities. Collision Avoidance Systems (CASs) function as sensory aids to augment hazard detection capabilities, and therefore may be of particular benefit to older drivers. Navigation aids can offset the working memory requirements of wayfinding, and auditory guidance directions may reduce the visual demands of searching for street signs and reading maps. However, these advanced systems also have the potential to increase the information processing demands of the driving task or distract drivers, particularly if they are not designed in accordance with the sensory and perceptual capabilities of older adults. A series of experiments aimed at examining the impact of sensory-cognitive characteristics of auditory navigational aids on driver wayfinding, performance on a visual peripheral detection task, and neurophysiological, behavioral and subjective indices of driver mental workload and performance were conducted. METHODS Results of two investigations will be discussed. The first investigation examined the impact of amplitude level on working memory. Older adults frequently exhibit reduced complex working memory span. However, recent evidence indicates that increasing a sound’s amplitude increases its duration in echoic memory (Baldwin, in press). Based on these findings, we hypothesized that increasing the amplitude of verbal material would improve working memory efficiency. RESULTS In support of this hypothesis, a strong positive correlation between the amplitude level at which the verbal material was presented and complex working memory span as measured by a version of Daneman and Carpenter’s (1980) Listening span task was observed. This positive relationshi

Determination of hemispheric emotional valence in individual subjects: A new approach with research and therapeutic implications

BACKGROUND: Much has been theorized about the emotional properties of the hemispheres. Our review of the dominant hypotheses put forth by Schore, Joseph, Davidson, and Harmon-Jones on hemispheric emotional valences (HEV) shows that none are supported by robust data. Instead, we propose that individual's hemispheres are organized to have differing HEVs that can be lateralized in either direction. METHODS: Probe auditory evoked potentials (AEP) recorded during a neutral and an upsetting memory were used to assess HEV in 28 (20 F) right-handed subjects who were either victims of childhood maltreatment (N = 12) or healthy controls. In a sub-population, we determined HEV by emotional response to lateral visual field stimulation (LVFS), in which vision is limited to one, then the other hemifield. We compare a number of morphometric and functional brain measures between individuals who have right-negative versus left-negative HEV. RESULTS: Using AEPs to determine HEV, we found 62% of controls and 67% of maltreated subjects had right negative HEV. There was a strong interaction between HEV-laterality and gender, which together accounted for 60% of individual variability in total grey matter volume (GMV). HEV-laterality was associated with differences in hippocampal volume, amygdala/hippocampal ratios, and measures of verbal, visual and global memory. HEV-laterality was associated also with different constellations of symptoms comparing maltreated subjects to controls. Emotional response to LVFS provided a convenient and complementary measure of HEV-laterality that correlated significantly with the HEVs determined by AEPs. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that HEV-laterality, like handedness or gender, is an important individual difference with significant implications for brain and behavioral research, and for guiding lateralized treatments such as rTMS

Age and Secondary Task Engagement in Relation to Safe/Unsafe Driving Behavior and Crash/Non-Crash Events

Driver distraction is thought to play a causal role in automobile crashes. Younger and older drivers have the highest crash risk per mile driven. To get a better understanding of the risk associated with conducting secondary tasks while driving the Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS) dataset, part of the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) was used to run a log-linear model comparing age and secondary task involvement and their relation to Event Severity (Balanced Baseline vs Crash), as well as Maneuver Judgement (Safe vs Unsafe). A significant relationship was found between event severity and maneuver judgement. Additionally, age group and secondary task engagement had a significant effect on event severity, but no significant interaction between age and secondary task was found. Age had a significant effect on maneuver judgement, but secondary task did not. Therefore, maneuver judgement may not be a good substitute for event severity as an outcome variable for predicting crashes

Hyperactivity persists in male and female adults with ADHD and remains a highly discriminative feature of the disorder: a case-control study

Abstract Background Symptoms of hyperactivity are believed to fade with age leaving ADHD adults mostly inattentive and impulsive. Our aim was to test this assertion using objective measures of hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention. Method Participants were 40 subjects with ADHD (23M/17F; 35±10 yrs) and 60 healthy adults (28M/32F; 29±9 yrs) blindly assessed using Wender-Reimherr interview ratings, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders and DSM-IV criteria. Infrared motion capture systems tracked head and leg movements during performance of a No-4’s cognitive control task. Subjects also completed the Conners’ CPT-II. Results ADHD and controls differed significantly in activity and attention. Effect sizes for activity measures (d’ = 0.7–1.6) were, on average, two-fold larger than differences in attention or impulsivity, correlated more strongly with executive function ratings and were more discriminatory (ROC area = 0.83 for activity composite, 0.65 for No-4’s distraction composite, 0.63 for Conners’ CPT-II confidence index, 0.96 for the combined activity and attention diagnostic index). This finding was true for subjects with the predominantly inattentive subtype as well as subjects with combined or predominantly hyperactive/impulsive subtype. Males and females with ADHD were equally active. The superior accuracy of activity measures was confirmed using Random Forest and predictive modeling techniques. Conclusions Objectively measured hyperactivity persists in adults with ADHD and is a more discriminative feature of the disorder than computerized measures of inattention or impulsivity. This finding supports the hypothesis that a deficient ability to sit still remains a defining feature of the disorder in adults when it is measured objectively.</p

Using Physiological Measures to Improve Training for UAV Operators

The current research examined use of frontal asymmetry measures of electroencephalography (EEG) activity to assess operator motivational intensity during training of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operators. Participants performed a series of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions of graduated difficulty. Results demonstrate that frontal asymmetry in conjunction with behavioral measures provides a valuable tool for determining learner workload and motivational intensity. Implications for the use of frontal asymmetry metrics to drive real-time adaptive training are discussed

Exposure to parental verbal abuse is associated with increased gray matter volume in superior temporal gyrus

Objective: Exposure to parental verbal aggression (PVA) during childhood increases risk for the development of psychopathology, particularly mood and anxiety disorders. Other forms of childhood abuse have been found to be associated with alterations in brain structure. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether exposure to PVA was associated with discernible effects on brain morphology. Methods: Optimized voxel-based morphometry was performed on 21 unmedicated, right-handed subjects (18-25 years) with histories of PVA and 19 psychiatrically healthy controls of comparable age and gender. Group differences in gray matter volume (GMV) - covaried by age, gender, parental education, financial stress, and total GMV - were assessed using high-resolution, T1-weighted, volumetric MRI data sets (Siemens 3T trio scanner). Results: GMV was increased by 14.1% in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG, BA 22) (P = 0.004, corrected cluster level). GMV in this cluster was associated most strongly with levels of maternal ( ß = 0.544, P < 0.0001) and paternal ( ß = 0.300, P < 0.02) verbal aggression and inversely associated with parental education ( ß = - 0.577, P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Previous studies have demonstrated an increase in STG GMV in children with abuse histories, and found a reduction in fractional anisotropy in the arcuate fasciculus connecting Wernicke\u27s and frontal areas in young adults exposed to PVA. These findings and the present results suggest that the development of auditory association cortex involved in language processing may be affected by exposure to early stress and/or emotionally abusive language

Childhood Sexual Abuse Is Associated with Reduced Gray Matter Volume in Visual Cortex of Young Women

Background: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has been associated with alterations in brain morphology using region of interest analyses that have focused on stress-sensitive target regions. This study was designed to ascertain the effects on gray matter volume (GMV) of exposure to CSA in healthy young adult college students selected based on exposure history regardless of psychiatric outcome. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) provided unbiased delineation of the most significantly affected brain regions. Methods: High-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets were obtained for 23 unmedicated female subjects with CSA and 14 healthy female control subjects of equivalent age and socioeconomic status with no history of trauma. Cortical surface-based analysis (FreeSurfer) was performed to verify VBM results. Results: Gray matter volume was reduced by 12.6% and 18.1% in right and left primary visual (V1) and visual association cortices of abused subjects. This reduction was directly related to duration of CSA before age 12. Gray matter volume of left and right V1 correlated with measure of visual memory (r = .353, p = .032 and r = .448, p = .005). Cortical surface-based analysis indicated that GMV of abused subjects was reduced in the left fusiform (p = .004), left middle occipital (p = .04), and right lingual (p = .002) gyri. Conclusions: Early visual experience exerts a strong influence on the developing mammalian visual cortex. Present findings indicate that exposure to CSA may also affect the development of this region and are apparent even in a population of subjects who are sufficiently healthy to matriculate