Image credits: Jaromír Kavan.
Hopefully, your elderly friends and family are in good driving shape. Nonetheless, age-related declines in cognitive functioning can occur. If this happens, it can affect one’s driving abilities.
“Despite dementia and other neurobiological disorders that are associated with aging, improved imaging has revealed that even into our seventies, our brains continue producing new neurons,” notes the Dana Foundation, an organization based in New York committed to advancing brain research.
As people age, their movements and reflexes can slow down. But there is little consistency in how these changes happen. Cognitive abilities show at least a small decline with age in many but not all healthy persons. In a recent study looking at cognitive peaks and declines, researchers found considerable variability in the changes of cognitive ability throughout life. For the sake of both drivers and pedestrians, we must pay attention to that variability.
Published:
10:41 AM February 3, 2021
A team from the UEA is currently recruiting online for volunteers to take part in the Driver Effect of Cognitive Impairment and Spatial Orientation and Navigation (DECISION) study
- Credit: SUPPLIED
A team of scientists in Norwich investigating the changes in everyday driving in people aged over 65 is calling on volunteers to help with research.
Taking place at the University of East Anglia, the study aims to establish whether thinking and spatial navigation changes affect everyday driving, and how.
Led by Professor Michael Hornberger, the team is currently recruiting online for volunteers to take part in the Driver Effect of Cognitive Impairment and Spatial Orientation and Navigation (DECISION) study.