Bad driving a genetic condition?

Neuroscientists at the University of California (UC) Irvine have released new research papers that show bad driving could be caused by a genetic deviation.

We've all seen bad drivers doing illogical and strange things on the road but the new research suggests it may not be intentional.

There is a specific gene variant that can limit the availability of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, and people with this gene variant showed poor results in a driving simulator test.

"These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," explained Dr Steven Cramer, associate professor of neurology at UC Irvine and the senior author of the study which was published in the Cerebral Cortex journal.

The study comprised 29 people, 22 of whom didn't have the gene variant, who performed 15 laps on a driving simulator. They had to learn the track and then were tested again four days later.

Those who did have the 'bad driver' gene scored worse on both simulator runs, and remembered less the second time around.

Though the test hasn't been applied to drivers of single car crashes, as the gene test is not commercially available, Dr Cramer said: "I'd be curious to know the genetics of people who get into car crashes.

"I wonder if the accident rate is higher for drivers with the variant," he added. Around 30 per cent of Americans have the gene variation.

So next time you see a driver making a silly mistake, think twice before you ask them if they got their licence from a box of cereal.

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