We determined the effects of age and sleep deprivation on driving and spatial perception in a virtual reality environment. Twenty-two young (mean age: 22 years, range: 18–35) and 23 old (mean age: 71 years, range: 65–79) participants were tested after a normal night of sleep and a night of sleep deprivation. The participants drove a virtual car while responding to uni- and bilateral visual and auditory stimuli. Driving errors (crossing the lane borders), reaction times and accuracy to visual and auditory stimuli, performance in psychological tests, and subjective driving ability and tiredness were measured. Age had no effect on the number of driving errors, whereas sleep deprivation increased significantly especially the number of left lane border crossings. Age increased the number of stimulus detection errors, while sleep deprivation increased the number of errors particularly in the young and in the auditory modality as response omissions. Age and sleep deprivation together increased the number of response omissions in both modalities. Left side stimulus omissions suggest a bias to the right hemispace. The subjective evaluations were consistent with the objective measures. The psychological tests were more sensitive to the effects of age than to those of sleep deprivation. Driving simulation in a virtual reality setting is sensitive in detecting the effects of deteriorating factors on both driving and simultaneous spatial perception.

中文翻译：

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虚拟现实环境中男性驾驶员在驾驶和空间感知中年龄和睡眠剥夺的差异交互作用

我们确定了年龄和睡眠剥夺对虚拟现实环境中驾驶和空间感知的影响。22 名年轻人（平均年龄：22 岁，范围：18-35）和 23 岁（平均年龄：71 岁，范围：65-79）参与者在正常睡眠和一晚睡眠剥夺后接受了测试。参与者驾驶虚拟汽车，同时响应单侧和双侧视觉和听觉刺激。测量了驾驶错误（越过车道边界）、反应时间和对视觉和听觉刺激的准确性、心理测试的表现以及主观驾驶能力和疲劳程度。年龄对驾驶错误的数量没有影响，而睡眠剥夺显着增加，尤其是左车道过境点的数量。年龄增加了刺激检测错误的数量，而睡眠剥夺增加了错误的数量，特别是在年轻人和听觉模式中作为反应遗漏。年龄和睡眠剥夺共同增加了两种方式中的反应遗漏数量。左侧刺激遗漏表明偏向右侧半空间。主观评价与客观测量一致。心理测试对年龄的影响比对睡眠剥夺的影响更敏感。虚拟现实环境中的驾驶模拟在检测恶化因素对驾驶和同时空间感知的影响方面非常敏感。左侧刺激遗漏表明偏向右侧半空间。主观评价与客观测量一致。心理测试对年龄的影响比对睡眠剥夺的影响更敏感。虚拟现实环境中的驾驶模拟在检测恶化因素对驾驶和同时空间感知的影响方面非常敏感。左侧刺激遗漏表明偏向右侧半空间。主观评价与客观测量一致。心理测试对年龄的影响比对睡眠剥夺的影响更敏感。虚拟现实环境中的驾驶模拟在检测恶化因素对驾驶和同时空间感知的影响方面非常敏感。