Dr. Melanie Karthaus

Many sensory, cognitive and motor functions change across the lifetime. Especially higher-order cognitive functions (so called executive functions) underlie age-related changes. These executive functions, including the fast switching between different actions and the inhibition of irrelevant information and inappropriate responses, are highly relevant for many daily life actions. One prominent example for a complex task which requires several executive functions is driving. The empirical evidence about age-related changes of executive functions in the context of driving is still inconsistent. Additionally it is still unknown, why there are large interindividual differences in driving performance with increasing age. Further research is needed to examine the influence of age-related changes of executive functions on driving and how these changes may be compensated by specific individual training and/or the design of a senior-friendly traffic environment. Considering current demographic changes and therefore increasing numbers of older drivers the answering of these questions with behavioral and neurophysiological methods is of significant importance.