Driving the Future: The Relation between Driving and Prospective Memory in Adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder

Difficulties with autonomy impact several quality-of-life outcomes in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Driving is an important step towards gaining autonomy by allowing the development and maintenance of work- and social-related contacts. Nonetheless, people with ASD depend highly on friends and family for their transportation needs. Due to the complexity of the driving task, specific ASD characteristics might interfere negatively with driving. The driving task consists of several subtasks, running in parallel. This requires the ability to switch in a smooth manner (e.g., shifting, steering, changing lanes, and keeping traffic rules into account). An additional difficulty concerns sudden changes in the traffic environment (e.g., traffic density, weather conditions). Therefore, driving is a complex goal-directed task that places high demands on perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes. The little research that exists suggests that people with ASD experience difficulties more specifically in complex driving situations, requiring multi-tasking and inducing increased cognitive load. Applied to autonomy, in order to maintain work and social contacts, it is not only necessary to handle the vehicle, but also to navigate through rural, urban, and highway traffic environments while concurrently remembering appointments and obeying a schedule. People with ASD however experience difficulties with coordinating and sequencing activities, and with planning ahead. Following this, prospective memory (PM) might interfere negatively with driving. PM is the ability to remember to carry out intended actions in the future while being engaged in other ongoing activities. Two subtypes of PM are event-based PM (EBPM) and time-based PM (TBPM). The former refers to the execution of intentions at certain events (i.e., prospective cues), the latter refers to the execution of intentions at certain times. This driving simulator study aims to investigate PM (i.e., EBPM and TBPM) as an underlying mechanism of driving in adults with ASD. To this end, a pc-based ‘virtual reality (VR) city task’ was translated to a driving simulator environment. The influence of several cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory, planning), from which the importance is indicated in previous literature, is also investigated. Data collection is ongoing and will be finished in December. The analyses are planned in January

Synergistic interaction effect between job control and social support at work on general psychological distress

Purpose Little is known about the interaction between job control and social support at work on common mental disorders. To examine whether there is a synergistic interaction effect between job control and social support at work on general psychological distress and whether it differs by the level of job demands. Methods About 1,940 male and female workers from the Malmo Shoulder and Neck Study were chosen for this cross-sectional study. Job control, social support at work, and job demands were measured by the Swedish version of the Job Content Questionnaire, and general psychological distress was assessed by the General Health Questionnaire. Results A significant excessive risk increase for general psychological distress was observed when workers had both low job control and low social support at work in both men and women. The synergistic effect was stronger in women, when job demands were low (Rothman's synergy index was 2.16 vs. 1.51 when job demands were high). However, in male workers, while a strong synergistic effect between job control and social support at work was found when job demands were low (synergy index was 9.25), there was an antagonistic effect when job demands were high (synergy index was 0.52). Conclusions There was a synergistic interaction effect between job control and social support at work on general psychological distress, but the synergistic effect or its effect size differed by the level of job demands and gender. An atomic, additive approach to the risk assessment of the psychosocial work characteristics on common mental disorders could be misleading or lead to a risk underestimation

Social security status and mortality in Belgian and Spanish male workers.

OBJECTIVE: To assess differences in mortality rates between social security statuses in two independent samples of Belgian and Spanish male workers. METHODS: Study of two retrospective cohorts (Belgium, n=23,607; Spain, n=44,385) of 50-60 year old male employees with 4 years of follow-up. Mortality rate ratios (MRR) were estimated using Poisson regression models. RESULTS: Mortality for subjects with permanent disability was higher than for the employed, for both Belgium [MRR=4.56 (95% CI: 2.88-7.21)] and Spain [MRR=7.15 (95% CI: 5.37-9.51)]. For the unemployed/early retirees, mortality was higher in Spain [MRR=1.64 (95% CI: 1.24-2.17)] than in Belgium [MRR=0.88 (95% CI: 0.46-1.71)]. CONCLUSION: MRR differences between Belgium and Spain for unemployed workers could be partly explained because of differences between the two social security systems. Future studies should further explore mortality differences between countries with different social security systems.This work was supported by grants from the Instituto Salud Carlos III-FEDER (FIS PI14/00057), the Spanish National Health Institute Carlos III (FIS 08/0914 and FIS 11/01470), the CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Research Foundation Flanders (G036816N)

Social security status and mortality in Belgian and Spanish male workers.

OBJECTIVE: To assess differences in mortality rates between social security statuses in two independent samples of Belgian and Spanish male workers. METHODS: Study of two retrospective cohorts (Belgium, n=23,607; Spain, n=44,385) of 50-60 year old male employees with 4 years of follow-up. Mortality rate ratios (MRR) were estimated using Poisson regression models. RESULTS: Mortality for subjects with permanent disability was higher than for the employed, for both Belgium [MRR=4.56 (95% CI: 2.88-7.21)] and Spain [MRR=7.15 (95% CI: 5.37-9.51)]. For the unemployed/early retirees, mortality was higher in Spain [MRR=1.64 (95% CI: 1.24-2.17)] than in Belgium [MRR=0.88 (95% CI: 0.46-1.71)]. CONCLUSION: MRR differences between Belgium and Spain for unemployed workers could be partly explained because of differences between the two social security systems. Future studies should further explore mortality differences between countries with different social security systems.This work was supported by grants from the Instituto Salud Carlos III-FEDER (FIS PI14/00057), the Spanish National Health Institute Carlos III (FIS 08/0914 and FIS 11/01470), the CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Research Foundation Flanders (G036816N)

Processing driving simulator data before statistical analysis by means of interpolation and an integral formula

Driving simulator data can be sampled in function of distance (equally spaced) or time (with constant frequency). Consequently, the sampling data might have problems in the envisaged type of analysis (i.e. point location based analysis vs. zonal-based analysis). These issues are illustrated by means of five driving simulator datasets. The nearest sampled parameter value in the direct vicinity of the specific point is a very good proxy for the driving parameter value at the point of interest along the road. The analysis of driving parameters in zones requires a different approach. In summary, the interpolation technique is preferred over using raw sampled data to calculate mean parameter values. We introduce an equivalent time integral formula to compute the mean value of a driving parameter with respect to distance. Based on this paper, we demonstrate that it is very important to mention the data processing approach in driving simulator methodology

The relation between driving errors and executive functioning in intellectually able young novice drivers with autism

Driving is a complex, goal-directed task. ASD can be related to impairments in executive functioning (EF), which may interfere with driving. This study aimed to investigate (1) if 16 young novice drivers with ASD exhibited a divergent performance on EF tests compared to 18 neurotypical peers, (2) if ASD participants exhibited a divergent driving performance compared to their neurotypical peers, and (3) if differences in driving performance would be related by the performance on the EF tasks. All participants completed a driving simulator scenario and computer-task battery. Driving error classification allowed the selection of several driving measures (e.g., collisions, speeding). Three EF tasks measuring working memory (WM), attention, and response inhibition were included. Results indicated lower WM and attention performance of the ASD participants compared to the control group, whereas response inhibition was similar across groups. Furthermore, the current study demonstrated that people with ASD can be considered as capable drivers once they have learned how to drive, that it is important to take different types of hazards into account, and that EF performance is related to driving performance. This relation may be different for drivers with and without ASD. Moreover, the relation may depend on the specific EFs and driving parameters under investigation. Future research could focus on the very early phases of driving education, and include additional driving and EF measures.Scopu