Vision and touch in ageing: crossmodal selective attention and visuotactile spatial interactions

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Gerontology
• Sensory Processing

Background:

• Crossmodal selective attention enables focusing on relevant sensory input while filtering out irrelevant stimuli.
• Ageing is associated with cognitive changes, but its specific impact on crossmodal attention and its spatial constraints is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of ageing on crossmodal selective attention.
• To examine the spatial constraints of selective attention across different age groups.
• To compare attentional performance in young, young-old, and old-old adults.

Main Methods:

• Three age groups (Young, Young-Old, Old-Old) performed tasks requiring judgment of vibrotactile targets while ignoring visual distractors.
• Crossmodal selective attention was measured by comparing performance with and without distractors.
• Spatial constraints were assessed by varying the relative locations of targets and distractors.

Main Results:

• Older adults exhibited significantly greater performance decrements in the presence of distractors, indicating impaired crossmodal selective attention.
• All age groups showed performance declines with incongruent target-distractor elevations.
• Spatial modulation of attention was observed in younger groups but diminished in the oldest group, suggesting age-related decline in spatial attentional processing.

Conclusions:

• Ageing detrimentally affects crossmodal selective attention.
• Advanced age is associated with compromised spatial aspects of selective attention.
• These findings highlight age-related changes in the ability to integrate and filter sensory information across modalities.