Introduction: Stroke often causes homonymous visual field loss, which can lead to exclusion from driving. Retention of a driving licence is sometimes possible by completing an on-road assessment, but this is not practical for all. It is important to find simple tests that can inform the assessment and rehabilitation of driving-related visual-motor function. Method: We developed novel computerised assessments: visual search; simple reaction and decision reaction to appearing pedestrians; and pedestrian detection during simulated driving.We tested 12 patients with stroke (7 left, 5 right field loss) and 12 controls. Results: The homonymous visual field defect group was split into Adequately Compensated or Inadequately Compensated groups based on visual search performance.The Inadequately Compensated group had problems with stimuli in their affected field: they tended to react more slowly than controls and in the driving task they failed to detect a number of pedestrians. In contrast the Adequately Compensated group were better at detecting pedestrians, though reaction times were slightly slower than controls. Conclusion:We suggest that our search task can predict, to a limited extent, whether a person with stroke compensates for visual field loss, andmay potentially identify suitability for specific rehabilitation to promote return to driving. (i) Key findings: 1. Visual search can, to a limited extent, identify people with stroke who have compensated for visual field loss 2. Inadequate compensation leads to poor hazard detection in the affected field. 3. Adequate compensation leads to hazard detection performance similar to controls,with slightly slower reaction times. (ii)What the study has added:This study demonstrates that after stroke, a fairly simple visual search taskmay be a useful way of determining the likelihood of successfully detecting hazards in a realistic driving scenario.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)