Age slowing down in detection and visual discrimination under varying presentation times

Abstract

The reaction time has been described as a measure of perception, decision making, and other cognitive processes. The aim of this work is to examine age-related changes in executive functions in terms of demand load under varying presentation times. Two tasks were employed where a signal detection and a discrimination task were performed by young and older university students. Furthermore, a characterization of the response time distribution by an ex-Gaussian fit was carried out. The results indicated that the older participants were slower than the younger ones in signal detection and discrimination. Moreover, the differences between both processes for the older participants were higher, and they also showed a higher distribution average except for the lower and higher presentation time. The results suggest a general slowdown in both tasks for age under different presentation times, except for the cases where presentation times were lower and higher. Moreover, if these parameters are understood to be a reflection of executive functions, these findings are consistent with the common view that age-related cognitive deficits show a decline in this function.

Power-Law Distribution of Natural Visibility Graphs from Reaction Times Series

“…We repeated the test after eliminating the outlier in the 12-year-old group and the result did not vary. These results are consistent with the findings on how reaction times evolve with age [38,[61][62][63][64]. A linear model was adjusted taking the logarithm of RT mean as the dependent variable, and age and sex as the fixed-effect factors, obtaining the same results: significant differences across ages 8 and 9 years (10% less RT mean, p-value = 0.01); 9 and 10 years (8% less, p-value = 0.05); 10 and 11 years (15% less, p-value < 0.01); and not between sexes (p-value for sex 0.82).…”

Biosystems Study of the Molecular Networks Underlying Hippocampal Aging Progression and Anti-aging Treatment in Mice

“…It has been reported that a change in hippocampal volume and structure is observed with age-related decline in learning and memory ( Verbitsky et al, 2004 ; Arias-Cavieres et al, 2017 ; Bettio et al, 2017 ; Moret-Tatay et al, 2017 ). Additionally, in the aging hippocampus, neurobiological alterations have been clearly observed including those that alter intracellular signaling and gene expression, and cause neuroinflammation response ( Bettio et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Additionally, in the aging hippocampus, neurobiological alterations have been clearly observed including those that alter intracellular signaling and gene expression, and cause neuroinflammation response ( Bettio et al, 2017 ). In recent years, studies regarding of the age-related hippocampus have focused on cognitive decline and impaired memory ( Arias-Cavieres et al, 2017 ; Bettio et al, 2017 ; Moret-Tatay et al, 2017 ). Several studies revealed the DEGs in hippocampus between young and the aging mice linked to the cognitive deficient ( Xiong et al, 2000 ; Cheng et al, 2007 ; Thomas et al, 2014 ), synaptic plasticity ( Dempsey and Ali, 2014 ) and various dysregulated pathways related to immune and inflammatory response ( Landel et al, 2016 ).…”

Profiles on the Orientation Discrimination Processing of Human Faces

“…The dependent variable of interest is the reaction time, as this is considered to reflect the cognitive architecture, and not surprisingly, is a star variable in the literature [ 41 ]. However, the RTs (reaction times) are drawn from positively skewed distributions; for this reason, extreme data were trimmed, as in previous literature [ 42 ].…”