Contributions and future potential of animal models for geroscience research on sensory systems

Sensory systems mediate our social interactions, food intake, livelihoods, and other essential daily functions. Age-related decline and disease in sensory systems pose a significant challenge to healthy aging. Research on sensory decline in humans is informative but can often be difficult, subject to sampling bias, and influenced by environmental variation. Study of animal models, including mice, rats, rabbits, pigs, cats, dogs, and non-human primates, plays a complementary role in biomedical research, offering advantages such as controlled conditions and shorter lifespans for longitudinal study. Various species offer different advantages and limitations but have provided key insights in geroscience research. Here we review research on age-related decline and disease in vision, hearing, olfaction, taste, and touch. For each sense, we provide an epidemiological overview of impairment in humans, describing the physiological processes and diseases for each sense. We then discuss contributions made by research on animal models and ideas for future research. We additionally highlight the need for integrative, multimodal research across the senses as well as across disciplines. Long-term studies spanning multiple generations, including on species with longer life spans, are also highly valuable. Overall, integrative studies of appropriate animal models have high translational potential for clinical applications, the development of novel diagnostics, therapies, and medical interventions and future research will continue to close gaps in these areas. Research on animal models to improve understanding of the biology of the aging senses and improve the healthspan and additional research on sensory systems hold special promise for new breakthroughs.