Loughborough University

All Road Users2022

10 Oct

Written By Lynne Dickens

Development of an effective screening test to identify individuals in the early stages of dementia who are unfit to drive

Amount awarded

£206,604

Due to complete

2025

Making roads safer for…

All road users

Project summary

Driving is a complex activity requiring a multitude of cognitive skills and abilities. For persons with dementia (PWD) cognitive impairment affects their ability to engage with activities of daily living; driving inevitably becomes difficult and they may become unsafe on roads.

Defective eye scanning (inadequate scanning, loss of central field advantage affecting response times etc) has been shown to be an early feature in the prodromal phases of dementia called mild cognitive impairment.

A decline in visual scanning skills, which help drivers judge risk and predict upcoming traffic problems, could play a large role in making people with early dementia unsafe drivers. For example, small changes in visual scanning may reduce reaction times and/or result in failure to notice important cues.

Loughborough University, in collaboration with the Monash University Accident Research Centre, aims to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of non-invasive eye scanning on driving ability in older people with and without early dementia/MCI, comparing it against usual dementia screening tests.

Using a novel ‘walking and talking’ technique the project will also explore the needs and preferences of people with cognitive impairment who are no longer able to drive safely with regard to feedback mechanisms they would like to have (voice over, automated vehicle derived actions etc).

View organisation website →

East Midlands

Lynne Dickens

Spot On Creative is a Northants-based creative team who have the hard-earned skills, expertise and industry knowledge that only come from having worked for years in advertising. It’s all managed by Lynne Dickens who has over 20 years’ experience in marketing communications, and ten years in website design and build, and creative team project management.

Lynne is also a qualified art historian and has some expertise in curating fine art exhibitions and producing all of the catalogues, posters and supporting material to create a successful event.

All the guys in our team have worked for one-man bands, SMEs and large blue-chip multinationals in just about every sector, field and industry. We can come up with great ideas, superb design and copy, and exceptional photography for anything from websites to email campaigns, branding to brochures – and everything in between.

And the beauty of Spot On Creative is that we’re big in creativity, experience and knowledge, but small in overheads and invoices. So we’re a much more sensible and affordable option for you than a larger advertising agency or marketing company.