Eye Movements of Patients with MCI against Wrong-Way Driving Countermeasures.

Wrong-way driving on highways is an important issue in many countries as it can potentially put the lives of many at risk. In Japan, approximately 200 instances of wrong-way driving occur annually, and preventative countermeasures, such as road arrows, have been implemented. However, the incidence of wrong-way driving has not decreased since the introduction of these countermeasures, and stronger countermeasures are therefore necessary. More than 70% of wrong-way drivers are elderly individuals, and, in Japan, over 30% of elderly individuals have diseases leading to cognitive decline. In this paper, we focus on the reduction of visual cognitive function due to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and the effects of visual countermeasures on patients with MCI, as determined using a computer graphics movie and an infrared eye tracker to investigate gaze movements. We analyzed differences in fixation points and the quantity of saccades between patients with MCI and healthy individuals. Patients with MCI were found to have delayed identification of wrong-way driving. This suggests that deficits in visual attention and deterioration of visual cognitive function in dynamic environments may be factors underlying wrong-way driving in patients with MCI.