Cecily O'Connor
RedwoodAge.com

Like many adults, Pauline Angleman routinely drives herself around to run errands. Unlike most, she's nearly 100 years old.

"I don't drive too fast, but I don't hold up traffic," Angleman recently told her hometown paper, the Marin Independent Journal.

Angleman, who will celebrate her birthday this week in Corte Madera, Calif., is about to become part of a small - but growing - group of California residents over age 100 that carry a license to drive. She recently passed an eye and written exam that makes her license valid until 2013, when she turns 105.

While Angleman is still fit to drive, many older adults at some point stop using their car - either on their on volition or through the support of caregivers - because due to poor eyesight, memory and other factors they are considered a danger to themselves and others.

To address adult's personal safety and quality-of-life needs, insurer Allstate is piloting a brain fitness program in Pennsylvania that aims to improve cognitive functioning and a driver's visual alertness. San Francisco-based Posit Science created the fitness program, known as InSight, which is made up of five games and exercises that each target one aspect of visual processing and memory.

For example, in the game "bird safari," users become photographers shooting local birds in Florida, California and Costa Rica. To get the shots, you have to locate the right bird among a group of similar birds when they flash on the screen. This stimulates visual precision, processing speed and useful field of view.

Overall, brain fitness workouts are seen as an important way to delay natural effects of aging, and slow the onset of memory-loss disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. The ability to process visual information faster could be essential to daily tasks like driving that help people maintain a sense of independence.

The number of older adults on the road is expected to increase over next several decades as drivers from the boomer generation become seniors. There were 30 million licensed drivers age 65 and older in 2006, an 18 percent increase from 1996, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Discounts, Too
Initially, Allstate will call upon selected Pennsylvania drivers that are 50 years and older to access the impact cognitive training has on driving safety. If using the software proves successful in reducing accident rates among these Allstate customers, the insurer said it hopes to begin offering discounts to drivers who use computer-based exercises.

The Posit Science software has been shown to reduce dangerous driving maneuvers by up to 40 percent, and improve stopping distance by an average of 22 feet when traveling at 55 miles per hour, according to more than a dozen National Institutes of Health funded studies. The visual training also can reduce crash risk by up to percent. 

Through the program, "we're offering people an innovative solution in hopes of improving their personal safety and quality of life," said Tom Warden, assistant vice president, Allstate Research and Planning Center.

That's important for many older adults who yearn to be self-sufficient as they age, and keep up with various activities.

For her part, Angleman keeps a busy schedule of luncheons, volunteer work and other community activities. 

"If I see someone who needs help or something done, I'll help them," she said. "I don't stay home very much."