Relationship Between Ankle Proprioception and Driving Performance During Simulator Driving in Post-stroke Drivers: A Pilot Study Results

Abstract

Stroke is a major cause leading to motor disability. Impaired motor function is one of the most serious causes of disabling sequelae of strokes, with over 50% of stroke patients experiencing a residual motor deficit. Researchers have shown an increased interest in proprioception deficits of the paretic side in hemiplegic patients. We examined the relationship between ankle proprioception and driving performance during simulator driving in post-stroke drivers. Four post-stroke drivers participated in this study. We developed an assessment environment using a driving simulator to evaluate driving performancce of stroke patients. The driving scenario consists of 3.5 km urban traffic conditions (3 minutes), 10 km divided 4-lane straight highway (6 minutes), and 7 km 2-lane curved or hilly rural roads (6 minutes). Performance parameters during the simulated drive were automatically generated by the simulator software. The parameters included time-to-collision (TTC), number of road edge excursions, centerline crossings, speed limit violations, collisions, reaction time, and runtime. Ankle proprioception was measured by tracking test that represent the scaling or grading as an essence of coordination of the ankle joint. Double-axis electrogoniometer was used to record the instantaneous angle of the ankle joint dorsiflexion–plantar flexion. We suggest that ankle proprioception may have effects on driving performance of post-stroke driving performance.