[Psychometric aspects of age-related changes in attention--demonstration in a rat]

Knowledge of human brain functions can often be obtained from psychobiological experiments carried out with animals. Lack of specification and sensitivity of the applied psychometric procedures may occasionally considerably limit the quality and degree of interpretation of the obtained results. The test here described is the first to offer the possibility of isolated quantitative identification of sensory and cognitive attention. It demonstrates the age-related effects on behavior-controlling attention functions in rats. What is assumed to be a general impairment of cognitive function in old age, might possibly turn out to be secondary effects of primarily altered attention thresholds.