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Fatigue is a pervasive symptom experienced by many individuals after COVID-19. Despite its widespread occurrence, fatigue remains a poorly understood and complex phenomenon. Our aim is to evaluate the subjective experience of mental fatigue after COVID-19 and to assess its significance for daily life functioning. In this online questionnaire study (N = 220), the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), World Health Organization Quality-of-Life assessment (WHOQoL) and a subjective severity rating of the COVID-19 disease progression were used. For our statistical analyses we utilized independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA with post-hoc analyses, and a multiple regression. As expected our findings revealed the COVID group reported significantly higher levels of subjective fatigue compared to the control group. Moreover, there was a significant difference between experienced fatigue across the four severity groups. Participants who had a milder course of disease also experienced severe subjective fatigue. Subjective fatigue explained 40% variance in quality-of-life. In conclusion, severe subjective fatigue appears to be associated with increased self-reported COVID-19 symptom severity and lower quality-of-life but is already observable in milder cases. This underscores, firstly, the importance of considering also less severe cases and, secondly, the need to develop rehabilitation and psychological interventions for fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: This study explores the effect of glaucomatous visual field defects on several neuropsychological tests that are often used in research and in clinical settings. Methods: Nineteen glaucoma patients and nineteen healthy participants, which are current drivers and older than 65 years old were included. All participants completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Trail Making Test (TMT), the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT), the Snellgrove Maze Task (SMT) and the Digit Span Test (DST). All participants were also tested on contrast sensitivity and near and far visual acuity. For the glaucoma patients, visual field tests were downloaded from hospital servers. Results: On the MoCA test, glaucoma patients scored lower than the healthy group, but not significantly. On the MoCA‐Blind, the difference was statistically significant. Glaucoma patients also had lower percentile scores on the TMT, with a significant difference in the TMT‐A, but this difference largely disappeared in the calculated TMT B‐A index, which isolates the cognitive component. The BVRT and SMT showed no significant differences between both groups. In the only non‐visual test, the DST, glaucoma patients outperformed the healthy group. Glaucoma severity did not influence results, except for the BVRT on which the moderate/severe group has better scores. Conclusion: Using visual items might lead to conclusions about cognition when it should be one about vision. Therefore, careful selection of tests is needed when examining cognition in glaucoma patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes brought on the infrastructure of the road surface on rural roads in the Netherlands appear to be effective in reducing speed and show potential for wider safety application. The design of the road infrastructure changes was intended to produce discomfort for the speeding driver by providing noxious auditory and haptic feedback. A decrease in driving speed and swerving behavior was found on the experimental roads, and this was coupled with a decrease in heart rate variability, which led to an increase in mental load.

The relationship between a driver's physiological and behavourial criteria need to be measured to ascertain the difference between the mental load of driving and driving behaviour. Twenty drivers participated in an on-the-road driving test and were subjected to 2 different conditions: high alcohol levels and the effects of time-on-task. The results show that the measurement of a driver's physiological and behaviour allows the development of a monitary device.

Objective: Previous research reported cognitive and psychomotor impairments in long‐term users of benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRAs). This article explores the role of acute intoxication and clinical complaints. Methods: Neurocognitive and on‐road driving performance of 19 long‐term (≥6 months) regular (≥twice weekly) BZRA users with estimated plasma concentrations, based on self‐reported use, exceeding the therapeutic threshold (CBZRA+), and 31 long‐term regular BZRA users below (CBZRA−), was compared to that of 76 controls. Results: BZRA users performed worse on tasks of response speed, processing speed, and sustained attention. Age, but not CBZRA or self‐reported clinical complaints, was a significant covariate. Road‐tracking performance was explained by CBZRA only. The CBZRA + group exhibited increased mean standard deviation of lateral position comparable to that at blood‐alcohol concentrations of 0.5 g/L. Conclusions: Functional impairments in long‐term BZRA users are not attributable to self‐reported clinical complaints or estimated BZRA concentrations, except for road‐tracking, which was impaired in CBZRA + users. Limitations to address are the lack of assessment of objective clinical complaints, acute task related stress, and actual BZRA plasma concentrations. In conclusion, the results confirm previous findings that demonstrate inferior performance across several psychomotor and neurocognitive domains in long‐term BZRA users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]