Cycling behaviour of patients with acquired brain damage is investigated in this report as are the possibilities of changing this behaviour by training. The study is reported in two parts. In this first part the investigation was confined to the differences between patients and healthy volunteers with regard to the level of their basic skills of riding a bicycle, and how cognitive load affects these skills. In the second part the effect of bicycle training will be evaluated. The results indicate that patients who sustained a severe concussion a short time earlier clearly show the effect of the damage in the results. The cognitive/motor functioning slows down, as does the speed of cycling and there is more swaying while riding. These results, together with the possibility of cognitive overload, show that the patient in the sub acute stage is a very vulnerable road user. Training appears to be necessary and this will be described in the second part of the project.
Abstract