Age-related differences in adults' spatial task performance: Influences of task complexity and perceptual speed

Dobson, Shannon H.; Kirasic, Kathleen C.; Allen, Gary L.

doi:10.1080/13825589508256587

Cited by 17 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Moreover, older adultsʼ card rotation, cube rotation, and SWM accuracy were significantly poorer compared with the young adults, in line with previous age-related studies of SWM (Park et al, 2002;Jenkins et al, 1999;Myerson et al, 1999) and mental rotation (Dobson et al, 1995;Salthouse, 1994;Hertzog et al, 1993;Salthouse & Mitchell, 1989). Unlike the young adults, however, older adults did not exhibit a correlation between the rate of early adaptation and any test of SWM.…”

Section: Relationship Between Behavioral Measures Of Swm and Visuomotsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…These and other studies have illustrated an inverse relationship between age and general spatial ability (Kirasic, 2000), including tasks involving mental rotation (Dobson, Kirasic, & Allen, 1995;Salthouse, 1994;Hertzog, Vernon, & Rypma, 1993;Salthouse & Mitchell, 1989). These deficits have been explained in part by neuroimaging studies showing the highest degree of age-related atrophy occurs at the right pFC (Tisserand et al, 2004;Raz et al, 2000), a region engaged during performance of SWM tasks (Milivojevic, Hamm, & Corballis, 2008;Suchan, Botko, Gizewski, Forsting, & Daum, 2006;Walter et al, 2003;Reuter-Lorenz et al, 2000;Courtney, Petit, Maisog, Ungerleider, & Haxby, 1998;Jonides et al, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Failure to Engage Spatial Working Memory Contributes to Age-related Declines in Visuomotor Learning

Anguera

Reuter‐Lorenz

Willingham

et al. 2011

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

155

180

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It is well documented that both cognitive and motor learning abilities decline with normative aging. Given that cognitive processes such as working memory are engaged during the early stages of motor learning [Anguera, J., Reuter-Lorenz, P., Willingham, D., & Seidler, R. Contributions of spatial working memory to visuomotor learning. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(9), 1917-1930, 2010], age-related declines in motor learning may be due in part to reductions in cognitive ability. The present study examined whether age-related declines in spatial working memory (SWM) contribute to deficits in visuomotor adaptation. Young and older adult participants performed a visuomotor adaptation task that involved adapting manual aiming movements to a 30° rotation of the visual feedback display as well as an SWM task in an fMRI scanner. Young adults showed a steeper learning curve than older adults during the early adaptation period. The rate of early adaptation was correlated with SWM performance for the young, but not older, adults. Both groups showed similar brain activation patterns for the SWM task, including engagement of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and bilateral inferior parietal lobules. However, when the SWM activation was used as a limiting mask, younger adults showed neural activation that overlapped with the early adaptation period, whereas older adults did not. A partial correlation controlling for age revealed that the rate of early adaptation correlated with the amount of activation at the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest that a failure to effectively engage SWM processes during learning contributes to age-related deficits in visuomotor adaptation.

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Section: Relationship Between Behavioral Measures Of Swm and Visuomotsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Failure to Engage Spatial Working Memory Contributes to Age-related Declines in Visuomotor Learning

Anguera

Reuter‐Lorenz

Willingham

et al. 2011

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

155

180

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In general, older adults demonstrate slower performance on spatial tasks than younger adults, 72,73 and gender differences in spatial skills may be larger in older adults. 74 Interestingly, some studies have reported a verbal advantage for elderly women 75,76 and spatial advantage for elderly men. 77 However, other studies have not yielded similar findings.…”

Section: Age Gender and Spatial Ability In Normal Agingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Along these lines, researchers and clinicians must be aware of the potential for vast differences within older adult patient groups and take this variability into consideration when developing VE assessment and rehabilitatio n tools. As pointed out by Neugarten, 16 old age spans many years and might be usefully broken down into categories such as "young-old" (age [65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84] and "old-old" (851 ), including both healthy and frail persons. Consequently, categories based on age alone may be arbitrary when it comes to capturing the diverse individual neuropsychological and physical differences present in the elderly.…”

Section: Nature Of the Clinical Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Issues for the Assessment of Visuospatial Skills in Older Adults Using Virtual Environment Technology

McGee

Zaag

Buckwalter

et al. 2000

CyberPsychology & Behavior

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Virtual Environment (VE) technology offers clinical assessment and rehabilitation options that are currently not available using traditional neuropsychological methods. Advancements in this type of immersive information technology could produce tools that enhance the scientific study of human cognitive/functional processes and improve our capacity to more accurately assess and treat impairments found in persons with central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction. Through the creation of dynamic three-dimensional (3D) stimulus environments, in which all behavioral responding can be recorded, VE technology offers the possibility to more sensitively address a range of age-related CNS disorders including Alzheimer's Disease, Vascular Dementia, Parkinson's Disease, and stroke. Advances in this area could impact quality of life issues for an increasingly aging world population. The VE Laboratory at the University of Southern California has developed a suite of ImmersaDesk-format, 3D projection-based VEs. These scenarios target assessment of visuospatial skills including visual field-specific reaction time, depth perception, 3D field dependency (virtual rod and frame test), static and dynamic manual target tracking in 3D space, and spatial rotation. The current project tested healthy older adults (ages of 65 and 92). Participants were administered a standard neuropsychological battery and a suite of VE-delivered visuospatial tasks. Issues addressed in this project include: the occurrence of VE-related side effects in healthy older adults; the relationship between performance on VE measures and standard neuropsychological tests; the assessment of gender specific performance differences; the relationship between immersive tendencies, presence ratings, and VE performance in older adults; learning and generalization; and VE visuospatial performance differences between younger and older participants. This article will address the motivation, rationale, and relevant issues for use of VEs with older adults. A description of our VE system/methodology in the context of a recent study targeting assessment and possible rehabilitation of visuospatial skills with this population will then be detailed. 469

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“…These include visualization [61][62][63] and memory for object locations. [64][65][66] In addition, it has been found that age negatively affects the ability to select and remember landmarks, 67 infer distances and directions among locations, [68][69][70] learn about a new environment, and find the way.…”

Section: Age-related Visuocognitive Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parkinson's Disease, Aging, and Visual Cognition

Antal

Terney

Bódis-Wollner

2008

Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation

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Normal ageing results in a multitude of physiological changes that could contribute to sensory impairments not necessarily caused by a disease process. A distinction between aging and disease has a diagnostic and potential therapeutic relevance in Parkinson's disease (PD). In parallel with retinal deficits, a dopaminergic dysregulation of the fronto-striatal circuits may occur in PD. Several visual and visuo-cognitive deficits are not yet demarcated in PD from ageing. Nevertheless, select impairment of retinal spatio-temporal visual processing and specific visual categorization deficits in PD are the result of the disease, not of aging per se. Key words: aging, Parkinson's disease, visual and cognitive dysfunctions P ARKINSON'S DISEASE (PD) is known as a movement disorder that is characterized by the progressive death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta and the presence of Lewy bodies and resulting functional changes that involve all components of the frontostriatal circuits, thalamostriatal circuits, and related posterior cortical areas. In the last 2 decades, several studies have demonstrated that parallel with or beyond the progressive motor impairments, nonmotor symptoms are also prevalent, including primary visual, visuospatial, perceptual, visuomotor, and visuocognitive dysfunctions (for review, see references 1-6). While impaired vision is not a dominant symp-

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Age-related differences in adults' spatial task performance: Influences of task complexity and perceptual speed

Cited by 17 publications

References 42 publications

Failure to Engage Spatial Working Memory Contributes to Age-related Declines in Visuomotor Learning

Failure to Engage Spatial Working Memory Contributes to Age-related Declines in Visuomotor Learning

Issues for the Assessment of Visuospatial Skills in Older Adults Using Virtual Environment Technology

Parkinson's Disease, Aging, and Visual Cognition

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