Effects of age and visual attention demands on optokinetic nystagmus suppression

The utility of optokinetic nystagmus suppression as an index of visual attention has been demonstrated; however, a gap exists in our understanding of the effects of aging on attentional division. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of a subject's age upon their ability to allocate visual attention among multiple salient elements which varied in location and complexity.

Large-field optokinetic nystagmus (OKN)-inducing animations were presented along with a central flashing fixation point to 27 subjects: 15 younger adults (range 19-23, mean age 21.4); and 12 older adults (range 65-89, mean age 74). Subjects were instructed to fixate on a central point while attending to either moving features of the background or solely to the fixation target. Failure of subjects to accurately divide their attention was quantified by optokinetic gain (eye velocity/background velocity). Gain was analysed in two separate 3-way ANOVAs: one at the central location with the between-subjects variable of age and within-subjects variables of complexity and dynamism; and one using only the dynamic tasks, including a between-subjects variable of age and within-subjects variables of complexity and location.

A strong effect of age was found between subjects during the more attentionally demanding dynamic tasks, but there was only a marginal effect during the static tasks. All within-subjects variables were highly significant, and there were several significant 2- and 3-way interactions.

This study provides strong evidence for the compounding effects of senescence and stimulus characteristics on an adult's ability to accurately allocate visual attention. These findings show that OKN suppression may be a useful framework for quantification of attentional resources in older subjects.