The impact on employment and education of caregiving for a family member with young onset dementia: A scoping review.

Young-onset dementia (YOD) affects individuals under 65 years of age, often leading to loss of employment and independence. Families provide increasing levels of care to family members with YOD, resulting in changes to their daily lives, including their occupational pursuits. This review examines evidence of the occupational implications for family members who provide care to a family with YOD to identify: (i) the influence and impact caregiving tasks and responsibilities have on employment, volunteering, and education, and (ii) caregiver, and caregiving situation factors associated with changes in employment, volunteering, and education. A scoping review was performed using eight electronic databases. Included articles were narratively synthesized using a thematic analysis. Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria and were included for review. The over-arching (main) theme of 'decision-making' was identified, with family members required to make choices about their own occupational goals and roles to be able to provide care to family living with YOD. The outcomes of these decisions are dynamic and changeable across the caregiving trajectory. Three caregiving factors influence decision-making: (1) Implications of Combining Caregiving and Occupations, (2) Altered Identity (3) Strategies to Support Caregivers of Individuals Living with YOD. A fourth theme was also identified 'Guidance for Researchers To Support Caregivers'. There is a scarce body of literature examining the influence caregiving has on occupational outcomes for the YOD caregiver population. Much of this work is descriptive and lacks focus on the implications, particularly long-term impacts. This review provides a foundational guide for future research and practices to support YOD family caregivers to obtain and sustain occupations.

Perceptions of Audio-Visual Impact Events in Younger and Older Adults.

Previous studies have examined whether audio-visual integration changes in older age, with some studies reporting age-related differences and others reporting no differences. Most studies have either used very basic and ambiguous stimuli (e.g., flash/beep) or highly contextualized, causally related stimuli (e.g., speech). However, few have used tasks that fall somewhere between the extremes of this continuum, such as those that include contextualized, causally related stimuli that are not speech-based; for example, audio-visual impact events. The present study used a paradigm requiring duration estimates and temporal order judgements (TOJ) of audio-visual impact events. Specifically, the Schutz-Lipscomb illusion, in which the perceived duration of a percussive tone is influenced by the length of the visual striking gesture, was examined in younger and older adults. Twenty-one younger and 21 older adult participants were presented with a visual point-light representation of a percussive impact event (i.e., a marimbist striking their instrument with a long or short gesture) combined with a percussive auditory tone. Participants completed a tone duration judgement task and a TOJ task. Five audio-visual temporal offsets (-400 to +400 ms) and five spatial offsets (from -90 to +90°) were randomly introduced. Results demonstrated that the strength of the illusion did not differ between older and younger adults and was not influenced by spatial or temporal offsets. Older adults showed an 'auditory first bias' when making TOJs. The current findings expand what is known about age-related differences in audio-visual integration by considering them in the context of impact-related events.

Older adults' acceptance of fully automated vehicles: Effects of exposure, driving style, age, and driving conditions.

Automated vehicles are anticipated to have benefits for older adults in maintaining their mobility and autonomy. These anticipated benefits can only be realized if this technology is accepted and thus used by older adults. However, it remains unclear how certain factors affect older adults' acceptance of automated vehicles. This study investigated the extent to which older adults' acceptance of fully automated vehicles are affected by exposure to automated vehicle technology (pre- vs. post-exposure), driving style (manual style relative to automated style), driving conditions (clear, rain, traffic), and age. Thirty-six older adults (M = 73.25, SD = 5.96) completed non-automated (manual) and fully automated driving scenarios under different driving conditions in a high-fidelity driving simulator. The fully automated driving scenarios were designed to be reliably driven by the system in a conservative driving style. Driving conditions included clear daytime, rain, and high-traffic. Pre- and post-exposure to the simulated fully automated driving experience, participants rated their comfort level with fully automated vehicles (FAVs). Additionally, after each driving condition, participants answered a validated questionnaire on their acceptance of the simulated fully automated experience for each respective driving condition. Age and driving style were found to have a significant effect on older adults' acceptance of FAVs, with older age and greater dissimilarity of an individual's manual driving style from the FAV's driving style being associated with lower acceptance. The results suggest that if reliability of fully automated vehicles is ultimately ensured and is demonstrated to the older adults, their acceptance of fully automated vehicles is generally high, particularly if the FAV is operated in a style similar to their own.

Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults.

Age-related changes to perceptual and cognitive abilities have been implicated in an increased risk of collision in older adults. This may be due, in part, to their reduced ability to attend to potentially relevant aspects of their driving environment. An associated general phenomenon of inattentional blindness involves a failure to notice visually presented objects or events when attention is directed elsewhere. Previous studies of inattentional blindness using computer paradigms report higher incidence of this effect in older compared to younger adults. However, little is known about whether these age-related effects are observed during more complex, realistic, everyday tasks, such as driving. Therefore, the goal of this study was to explore whether younger and older adults differ in their awareness of objects in their driving environment when their attention is directed toward another primary driving task. This study took place in a high-fidelity, full field of view, driving simulator. Thirty-two younger (M age = 25.41) and 32 older (M age = 73.41) adults drove through 19 short scenarios and were asked to first judge whether their vehicle could fit between two rows of vehicles parked on either side of the road and then to perform the associated driving maneuver (i.e., drive through or drive around). On four critical trials, objects were placed on the side of the road that differed in terms of animacy. Specifically, animate objects consisted of 3D humans standing by a bus shelter and inanimate objects consisted of photographs of the same individuals on a bus shelter advertisement. Inattentional blindness was measured via a post-drive, tablet-based recognition task immediately following the critical trials. Results revealed high rates of inattentional blindness across both age groups, with significantly lower levels of awareness for inanimate objects compared to animate objects. Further, whereas younger adults demonstrated reduced inattentional blindness following the first critical trial, older adults did not show this immediate improvement in recognition performance. Overall, this study provides unique insights into the factors associated with age-related changes to attention and how they may affect important driving-related outcomes.