The right‐side perceptual bias in aging determined in a laboratory setting and during a virtual driving task

Abstract

H€ am€ al€ ainen, H., Rashid Izullah, F., Koivisto, M., Takio, F. & Luimula, M. (2018). The right-side perceptual bias in aging determined in a laboratory setting and during a virtual driving task. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 59, 32-40.Spatial perceptual rightward bias which was originally described in Dichotic Listening studies seems to be a general phenomenon. This bias is age dependent, being evident in children with developing executive functions, and emerging again at older age as a function of aging and the declining executive functions. In the two studies presented here we compared the performance of young and elderly adults in spatial divided attention tasks with auditory and visual stimuli when the stimulus detection performance was measured in separate sessions in a laboratory setting (Study I), to performance when the same types of stimuli were mixed with a task in which the subject's primary objective was to drive a car in a virtual environment (virtual reality; Study II). The aim was to see if the perceptual bias could be detected and also to look at how it would differ in these two situations. 90 right-handed subjects (50 young and 40 elderly) participated in Study I and 84 subjects (64 young and 20 elderly) participated in Study II. Study I showed the rightward bias to be more evident in the elderly subjects in both modalities and in more demanding tasks. Study II revealed that in the triple task the spatial perceptual bias was evident in both modalities for the elderly participants when the conditions were more demanding. An interesting finding concerning the right-side perceptual bias was the simultaneous occurrence of left-side driving errors, i.e. crossing the lane border to the left especially by the elderly. Both of these biases may reflect the asymmetries of the attention-related neuronal networks.

Right-lateralised lane keeping in young and older British drivers

“…This was contrary to expectations and importantly, they found no difference in the laterality of collision behaviour between young and older adults. However, Hämäläinen et al [ 46 ] recently found that older, but not younger, right-lane driving Finnish adults tended to erroneously cross the lane boundary to the left during simulated driving, whilst performing a simultaneous, high-load perception task. The older adults also had a rightward perceptual bias, indicated by more erroneous rightward responses during bilateral visual target presentation, suggesting that their leftward driving error may be related to this rightward perceptual bias.…”

Visuospatial and Sensory Integration Tasks in Patients With Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder: Relationship to Body Mass Index and Smoking

“…The constructional apraxia uncovered by the CFT was not secondary to visual agnosia as evidenced by the DROT findings. Although the employed tasks did not constitute real life challenges, our findings may have clinical significance in patients with schizophrenia because difficulties with perceptual ( 43 ) and spatial integration along with other neurocognitive deficits may be a potential explanation for heightened rates of car accidents ( 44 ) in schizophrenics considering that proper copying cube ability ( 45 ) and left-right orientation ( 46 , 47 ) are important prerequisites for safe driving. Such deficits may relate to lateralized brain dysfunction in these patients ( 48 ) that has some basis in altered brain connectivity ( 49 ).…”

Differential interactions of age and sleep deprivation in driving and spatial perception by male drivers in a virtual reality environment

“…Further, Takio et al ., (2014) suggested that this age‐dependent rightward perceptual bias results from early development and late decline of executive functions, that is, changes in the interaction between perceptual and executive functions (Hugdahl, Westerhause, Alho, Medvedev, Laine & Hämäläinen, 2009; Takio et al ., 2014). Hämäläinen, Rashid Izullah, Koivisto, Takio and Luimula (2018) further demonstrated similar right‐side bias in the old group by utilizing an ecologically more valid (virtual reality (VR) headset based) driving simulator task.…”