COGNITIVE MEASURES, DRIVING SAFETY, AND ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

The performance of nine individuals with Alzheimer's disease (DAT) and nine age-matched controls on neuropsychological testing (NT) was comp ared to their performance on an on-the-road driving test. Patients wit h DAT differed significantly from controls on all NT and measures of d riving error. None of the NT correlated significantly with driving err ors for controls, and only Shipley Institute of Living Scale scores an d Southern California Figure-Ground Test scores showed significant cor relations with driving errors in subjects with DAT. Thus, although cer tain general cognitive measures appear to predict some driving errors for those with DAT, NT showed relatively weak overall power in predict ing measured driving errors, consistent with most of the literature. C urrent studies of limited driving situations for elderly people likely emphasize relatively overlearned skills (procedural memory) which may be somewhat independent of many specific NT measures. It is postulate d that NT measures will be much more predictive of challenge-related d riving performance.