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.
Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Attention , Automobile Driving , Brain Injuries/complications , Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Executive Function , Task Performance and Analysis , Brain Injuries/physiopathology , Brain Injuries/psychology , Cognition Disorders/physiopathology , Cognition Disorders/psychology , Depression , Educational Status , France/epidemiology , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neuropsychological Tests , Reaction Time , Risk Assessment , Statistics, Nonparametric , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) suffer from distortions of memory. Among such distortions, intrusions in memory tests are frequently observed. In this study we describe the performance of a group of mild AD patients and a group of normal controls on the recall of three different types of stories: a previously unknown story, a well-known fairy-tale (Cinderella), and a modified well-known fairy-tale (Little Red Riding Hood is not eaten by the wolf). The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that in patients who tend to produce intrusions, over-learned information interferes with episodic recall, i.e., the retrieval of specific, unique past episodes. AD patients produced significantly more intrusions in the recall of the modified fairy-tale compared to the recall of the two other stories. Intrusions in the recall of the modified fairy-tale always consisted of elements of the original version of the story. We suggest that in AD patients intrusions may be traced back to the interference of strongly represented, over-learned information in episodic memory recall.
