The broad goal of this study is to measure remote effects of cancer on brain physiology and behaviors that underpin instrumental activities of daily living such as automobile driving. Studies of hematological malignancies (HM) have demonstrated impairments in multiple brain functions shown to be critical for safe automobile driving. In the current pilot study, brain physiology during driving simulation was examined in 14 HM patients and 13 healthy comparison drivers. Electroencephalography was used to measure the eye fixation-related potential (EFRP)—a positive amplitude deflection evoked approximately 100 milliseconds after eye movement termination. Previous studies have demonstrated sensitivity of EFRP activity to information-processing capacity. All drivers completed visual search tasks to evaluate the relationship between driving-related changes in performance and EFRP activity. Results showed smaller EFRP amplitudes in drivers who had: (1) greater driving-related changes in visual search performance ( p = 0.03, Cohen’s d = 0.91); and (2) HM diagnosis ( p = 0.18, Cohen’s d = 0.54). Extending previous studies, these results provide neural evidence of reduced information-processing capacity associated with cancer diagnosis. Future large-scale studies are needed to confirm these results, given the high level of uncertainty and small sample size. This study provides a novel platform for linking changes in brain physiology and safety-critical driving behaviors.

中文翻译：

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患有血液恶性肿瘤的驾驶员信息处理受损的电生理测量

这项研究的总体目标是测量癌症对大脑生理学和行为的远程影响，这些生理学和行为是日常生活工具性活动（例如汽车驾驶）的基础。对血液恶性肿瘤（HM）的研究表明，多种大脑功能的损伤对于安全汽车驾驶至关重要。在当前的试点研究中，对 14 名 HM 患者和 13 名健康对照驾驶员在驾驶模拟期间的大脑生理学进行了检查。脑电图用于测量眼睛固定相关电位 (EFRP)——眼球运动终止后约 100 毫秒引起的正振幅偏转。先前的研究已经证明 EFRP 活动对信息处理能力的敏感性。所有驾驶员均完成了视觉搜索任务，以评估与驾驶相关的表现变化与 EFRP 活动之间的关系。结果显示，具有以下特征的驾驶员 EFRP 幅度较小：(1) 视觉搜索性能中与驾驶相关的变化较大（p = 0.03，Cohen's d = 0.91）；(2) HM 诊断（p = 0.18，Cohen's d = 0.54）。这些结果扩展了之前的研究，提供了与癌症诊断相关的信息处理能力降低的神经证据。鉴于高度不确定性和小样本量，未来需要进行大规模研究来证实这些结果。这项研究提供了一个新的平台，可以将大脑生理学的变化与安全关键的驾驶行为联系起来。