A comparison of heart rates during blind mobility and car driving.

Although blind pedestrians have a significantly higher heart rate when walking independently than when walking guided, no relationship between instantaneous heart rate and specific stressful environmental events has yet been demonstrated. However, such a relationship has been observed in a number of sighted tasks such as car driving. This study has compared the heart rates of four subjects performing both blind mobility and driving tasks and has shown that individuals who exhibit local stress effects during car driving do not show comparable efforts whilst walking independently under blindfold.