Bistable perception in normal aging: perceptual reversibility and its relation to cognition
Files
Accepted manuscript
Date
2017
DOI
Authors
Díaz-Santos, M.
Mauro, S.
Cao, Bo
Yazdanbakhsh, Arash
Neargarder, S.
Cronin-Golomb, Alice
Version
Published version
Accepted manuscript
Accepted manuscript
OA Version
Citation
M Díaz-Santos, S Mauro, B Cao, A Yazdanbakhsh, S Neargarder, A Cronin-Golomb. 2017. "Bistable perception in normal aging: perceptual reversibility and its relation to cognition." Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, Volume 24, Issue 2, pp. 115 - 134.
Abstract
The effects of age on the ability to resolve perceptual ambiguity are unknown, though it depends
on fronto-parietal attentional networks known to change with age. We presented the bistable
Necker cube to 24 middle-aged and older adults (OA; 56–78 years) and 20 younger adults (YA;
18–24 years) under passive-viewing and volitional control conditions: Hold one cube percept and
Switch between cube percepts. During passive viewing, OA had longer dominance durations (time
spent on each percept) than YA. In the Hold condition, OA were less able than YA to increase
dominance durations. In the Switch condition, OA and YA did not differ in performance.
Dominance durations in either condition correlated with performance on tests of executive
function mediated by the frontal lobes. Eye movements (fixation deviations) did not differ between
groups. These results suggest that OA’s reduced ability to hold a percept may arise from reduced
selective attention. The lack of correlation of performance between Hold and executive-function
measures suggests at least a partial segregation of underlying mechanisms.