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In this study the association between cognitive symptoms of PD and driving performance was investigated by examining the correlation between neuropsychological test performance and driving simulator behavior. Eighteen participants with PD and 18 healthy participants in a matched comparison group completed a range of neuropsychological measures. These data were correlated with driving simulator performance results from an earlier study. Significant correlations were found between several measures of neuropsychological test performance and driving behavior in participants with PD. In contrast, few significant correlations were obtained in the comparison group. Results suggest that executive difficulties in people with PD such as working memory, planning and set shifting are associated with reduced tactical level driving performance such as speed adaptation and complex curve navigation. Impaired information processing, visual attention and visual perception in people with PD appears associated with reduced operational level driving performance, such as reacting to road obstacles and maintaining constant lane position. Few correlations were found between measures of physical mobility and psychomotor speed with driving measures. Overall, this study highlights the important role of cognitive function in driving performance within the PD population. Comprehensive assessment of cognitive function should be included when assessing driving competency in people with PD.

Objective: To document patterns of water exposure at surf beaches by gender and identify factors that predict bather confidence to return to shore if caught in a rip current. Method: Recreational surf beach bathers (N=406) provided self‐completed data on water exposure patterns, surf activity behaviours and potential drowning risk and protective factors. Results: Relative to females, males visited surf beaches more frequently, expected to spend longer in the water and in deeper water, and more often bathed after using alcohol (p<0.05). Confidence to return to shore if caught in a rip current was predicted by confidence to identify a rip current, self‐rated swimming ability, gender, times visited any beach, and age in a standard linear regression model (adjusted R2=0.68). Conclusion: The study supports explanations that high male drowning rates result from more frequent exposure to water than females at high situational risk levels. Implications: Controlled studies are required to determine the role in drowning of overconfidence, swimming ability, surf experience, floatation devices and response to sea conditions.

Numerous aspects of driving performance seem compromised in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Measures of cognitive impairment consistently correlate with poor driving simulator performance in this population; however, the effects of specific cognitive difficulties on discrete aspects of driving behavior have not been investigated thoroughly. Previous studies have demonstrated that people with PD exhibit difficulties internally cueing cognitive processes. This study examined the impact of impaired internal cueing on specific driving behaviors. A simulator measured the driving behavior of 18 current drivers in the mild-to-moderate stages of PD and 18 matched controls. Participants navigated through different driving conditions where the opportunity to use internal and external cues was manipulated. People with PD exhibited difficulties using internal cues to regulate driving behavior around traffic signals and curves. Instead of using internal cues, participants with PD were more reliant on external cues to regulate driving behavior. They were also less able to adapt their driving behavior to suit driving conditions. Because all participants with PD were current drivers in the mild-to-moderate stages of the disease, findings challenge the widely-held assumption that cognitive difficulties only impact on driving performance in the moderate-to-severe stages of PD.

Performance decrements after more than 24 hours of sleep deprivation (SD) are not only a monotonic function of the duration of SD, but are the result of an interaction between SD and time of day. The major deteriorations in performance during SD are still evident throughout the night, as in the non-sleep-deprived state. Twelve experienced and 12 inexperienced drivers drove a driving simulator for 20 minutes at 0800, 1100, 1400, 1700, and 2000 hours on two testing days. One testing day was conducted after a normal night's sleep, and the other after one night of SD. Reaction time (RT) was also measured while driving. The standard deviation of both lateral position and speed were significantly higher during SD. Performance steadily improved across the day between 0800 and 2000 hours, and the absence of any sleep-by-time interactions suggests that the rhythm of driving performance across the day was similar after both normal sleep and SD. Inexperienced drivers had higher RTs than experienced drivers in both sleep-deprived and non-sleep-deprived conditions. These results have important implications for those involved in the transport industry.