Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Oct:69:166-73.
doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.031. Epub 2016 Jul 30.

Linking cognitive and visual perceptual decline in healthy aging: The information degradation hypothesis

Zachary A Monge  1 , David J Madden  2
Affiliations
Review

Linking cognitive and visual perceptual decline in healthy aging: The information degradation hypothesis

Zachary A Monge et al. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2016 Oct.

Abstract

Several hypotheses attempt to explain the relation between cognitive and perceptual decline in aging (e.g., common-cause, sensory deprivation, cognitive load on perception, information degradation). Unfortunately, the majority of past studies examining this association have used correlational analyses, not allowing for these hypotheses to be tested sufficiently. This correlational issue is especially relevant for the information degradation hypothesis, which states that degraded perceptual signal inputs, resulting from either age-related neurobiological processes (e.g., retinal degeneration) or experimental manipulations (e.g., reduced visual contrast), lead to errors in perceptual processing, which in turn may affect non-perceptual, higher-order cognitive processes. Even though the majority of studies examining the relation between age-related cognitive and perceptual decline have been correlational, we reviewed several studies demonstrating that visual manipulations affect both younger and older adults' cognitive performance, supporting the information degradation hypothesis and contradicting implications of other hypotheses (e.g., common-cause, sensory deprivation, cognitive load on perception). The reviewed evidence indicates the necessity to further examine the information degradation hypothesis in order to identify mechanisms underlying age-related cognitive decline.

Keywords: Aging; Cognition; Information degradation; Perception; Vision; Visual perception.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Schematic of the information degradation hypothesis
The information degradation hypothesis states that degraded perceptual inputs, resulting either from age-related neurobiological processes or experimental manipulations, lead to errors in perceptual processing, which in turn may affect non-perceptual, higher-order cognitive processes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Anstey KJ, Butterworth P, Borzycki M, Andrews S. Between-and within-individual effects of visual contrast sensitivity on perceptual matching, processing speed, and associative memory in older adults. Gerontology. 2006a;52:124–130. - PubMed
    1. Anstey KJ, Lord SR, Hennessy M, Mitchell P, Mill K, Von Sanden C. The effect of cataract surgery on neuropsychological test performance: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. 2006b;12:632–639. - PubMed
    1. Baltes PB, Lindenberger U. Emergence of a powerful connection between sensory and cognitive functions across the adult life span: A new window to the study of cognitive aging? Psychology and Aging. 1997;12:12. - PubMed
    1. Baracat B, MarquiÉ JC. Age differences in sensitivity, response bias, and reaction time on a visual discrimination task. Experimental Aging Research. 1992;18:59–66. - PubMed
    1. Ben-David BM, Schneider BA. A sensory origin for color-word Stroop effects in aging: Simulating age-related changes in color-vision mimics age-related changes in Stroop. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. 2010;17:730–746. - PubMed