Assessing age-related multisensory enhancement with the time-window-of-integration model.

Full Abstract

Although from multisensory research a great deal is known about how the different senses interact, there is little knowledge as to the impact of aging on these multisensory processes. In this study, we measured saccadic reaction time (SRT) of aged and young individuals to the onset of a visual target stimulus with and without an accessory auditory stimulus occurring (focused attention task). The response time pattern for both groups was similar:
mean SRT to bimodal stimuli was generally shorter than to unimodal stimuli, and mean bimodal SRT was shorter when the auditory accessory was presented ipsilaterally rather than contralaterally to the target. The elderly participants were considerably slower than the younger participants under all conditions but showed a greater multisensory enhancement, that is, they seem to benefit more from bimodal stimulus presentation. In an attempt to weigh the contributions of peripheral sensory processes relative to more central cognitive processes possibly responsible for the difference in the younger and older adults, the time-window-of-integration (TWIN) model for crossmodal interaction in saccadic eye movements developed by the authors was fitted to the data from both groups. The model parameters suggest that (i) there is a slowing of the peripheral sensory processing in the elderly, (ii) as a result of this slowing, the probability of integration is smaller in the elderly even with a wider time-window-of-integration, and (iii) multisensory integration, if it occurs, manifests itself in larger neural enhancement in the elderly; however, because of (ii), on average the integration effect is not large enough to compensate for the peripheral slowing in the elderly.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Diederich, Adele (A); Colonius, Hans (H); Schomburg, Annette (A);

Affiliation: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. a.diederich(-atsign-)jacobs-university.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuropsychologia (Neuropsychologia), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Aug; vol 46 (issue 10) : pp 2556-62

Dates: Created 2008/06/09; Completed 2008/09/26;

PMID: 18490033, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Aged
Aging - physiology
Attention - physiology
Auditory Perception
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Processes - physiology

Models, Biological
Physical Stimulation
Probability
Psychophysics
Reaction Time - physiology
Saccades - physiology
Time Factors
Touch
Visual Perception

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.