Background: Elderly drivers often face safety challenges due to age-related declines in cognitive, sensory, and motor functions. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) offer a potential solution by enhancing safety and mobility. Objectives and method: This systematic review investigates the factors influencing the perception and usage of ADAS among elderly drivers, focusing on perceived safety, usefulness, trust, and ease of use. Results: Older adults show a preference for Level 1 ADAS, which they perceive as safer. Although they acknowledge the usefulness of ADAS in supporting their autonomy, skepticism remains regarding higher-level systems, primarily due to concerns about reliability and invasiveness. Trust and ease of use are essential factors influencing their acceptance. The review identifies common themes and barriers to the adoption of these technologies and emphasizes the need for senior-friendly interfaces and targeted training. The findings indicate that addressing these issues can significantly improve the safety and mobility of elderly drivers. The successful adoption of ADAS among older adults depends on balancing safety, control, and ease of use, with gradual and supportive integration fostering greater acceptance and trust. Conclusions: This study outlines practical implications for stakeholders, emphasizing the need for user-friendly ADAS design, public awareness campaigns, government incentives, insurance discounts, and community training to enhance adoption among older drivers.

The present study investigates how infrastructure perception, travel satisfaction and pro-environmental attitudes influence the motivations for choosing cycling as a mode of transport. The effects of demographic variables and mobility habits are also taken into account. Data are collected via a survey with cyclists living in Milan and the surrounding areas. The survey comprises a first set of items to explore the cyclists’ transportation habits and three self-assessment questionnaires: The Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS)—A Short Form, The Satisfaction with Travel Scale (STS) and the Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI). A series of different multiple linear regression analyses and mediation models are conducted. The findings suggest that the frequency of cycling may be explained based on several factors. Males report cycling more frequently, younger adults report lower frequencies of bicycle use and the urban setting is more significantly related to bicycle use. Moreover, the results highlight the significant positive role of the perception of neighbourhoods (especially those with an easy access to non-residential areas) and of pro-environmental attitudes (especially of personal conservation behaviour) in promoting the frequency of bicycling, with the mediation effect of the variable ‘purpose of bicycle use’ (for leisure or to reach a destination) as well. Based on these findings, policymakers should focus on tailored strategies to promote cycling in different users.

Previous research has shown the positive effects of music and dance-based interventions on the physical and psychosocial symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aims of this study were: (1) to investigate how PD patients subjectively perceive the emotional, cognitive, and social benefits of a music- and dance-based intervention; (2) to apply an innovative methodology for an interview analysis combining findings from a linguistic text with an analytic approach and conducted with the software LIWC and from the content analysis performed by human coders. Extensive, open-ended interviews were conducted with 13 patients with PD who had participated in a dance and music program. The interviews were analyzed using both human coders and the computer-based approach. The results show that emotional and social aspects are considered the most frequent perceived benefits of the dance program. The data confirm the positive impact of dance- and music-based programs on promoting participants’ emotional and social well-being. A combined approach to text analysis appears to be a promising way to achieve more in-depth insights into patients’ subjective perceptions.

This paper proposes an integration of embodied and phenomenological perspectives to understand the restorative capacity of natural environments. It emphasizes the role of embodied simulation mechanisms in evoking positive affects and cognitive functioning. Perceptual symbols play a crucial role in generating the restorative potential in environments, highlighting the significance of the encounter between the embodied individual and the environment. This study reviews Stress Reduction Theory (SRT) and Attention Restoration Theory (ART), finding commonalities in perceptual fluency and connectedness to nature. It also explores a potential model based on physiognomic perception, where the environment’s pervasive qualities elicit an affective response. Restorativeness arises from a direct encounter between the environment’s phenomenal structure and the embodied perceptual processes of individuals. Overall, this integrative approach sheds light on the intrinsic affective value of environmental elements and their influence on human well-being.

Advancing age can bring a decline in many driving-related cognitive abilities. For this reason, public safety concern has raised about older adults’ driving performance, and many countries have adopted screening polices to assess older drivers’ fitness to drive. As a result of such assessments, authorities may impose behavioral restrictions to driving. The present study examines whether driving-related cognitive abilities change over time and compares drivers either restricted or not by licensing authorities after the first assessment. The data were derived from a database provided by a service of psychodiagnostic assessment of fitness to drive. This database contained data of people referred for cognitive assessment in order to renew their driving license over the period of 2016 to 2022. The sample included 58 cognitively healthy old drivers (mean age = 82.79, SD = 6.13; 97% men) with a follow-up examination (T2) after a period ranging from one to four years (M = 1.59, SD = 0.72) since the first assessment. Cognitive assessments were conducted using the standard test battery from the Vienna Test System (VTS8; ©Schuhfried GmbH, Mödling, Austria). Decision time variability, motor time, reaction time under stress, and obtaining an overview did not show significant changes between T1 and T2, whereas selective attention and inductive reasoning significantly decreased over time in both groups. Improvements in processing speed consistent with practice effects emerged at T2. Restricted drivers (n = 41) maintained significantly worse performances than unrestricted drivers (n = 17) in the follow-up assessment. Chronological age was associated with higher reaction time under stress, while education showed a buffering role against a decrease in perceptual speed. Overall, although older drivers’ driving-related cognitive abilities remain relatively stable over the short-term, the decline in some cognitive functions deserves reevaluation and monitoring.

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) commonly causes speech impairments, including difficulties in expressing emotions through voice. Method: The objective of this study was to investigate gendered vocal expressions of fear, anger, sadness, and happiness for mild to moderate PD. Prosodic features (related to fundamental frequency (F0), intensity (I), speech rate, articulation rate, and number and duration of pauses) and acoustic correlates of voice quality (CPPS, jitter, shimmer, and HNR) were collected from 14 patients with PD (mean age = 69.93; SD = 7.12; 8 males, 6 females) and 13 healthy controls (HC) (mean age = 68.13; SD = 8.27; 5 males, 8 females) matched for age, sex, and years of education. The utterances were extracted from four emotional and one neutral text. The neutral utterance and the emotional utterances were compared. Intra-sex comparison (female with PD vs. female HC and male with PD vs. male HC) and inter-sex comparison (female vs. male both for patients with PD and for HC), were performed with the Mann–Whitney test. A Mann–Whitney test was also used to compare the different emotional conditions, considering sex and PD diagnosis as well. Results: No significant intra-sex differences were found for the neutral speech, but inter-sex differences emerged. Regarding emotional speech, females with PD featured lower MaxF0 than female HCs for happiness and higher intensity variability (SD I) for sadness. Utterances by females with PD had lower CPPS than utterances by HCs for anger and fear. Utterances by males with PD had lower minimum intensity (MinI) than utterances by male HCs when expressing fear. Conclusions: Emotional vocal expression in individuals with PD was found to be impaired and showed sex differences. These findings have the potential to significantly impact the quality of life of PD patients.