Face Recognition in the Elderly

Abstract

The marked decline in face recognition ability in elders is related to declines in spatial vision and cognitive status. All spatial vision measures have similar predictive ability for face recognition.

Age Differences in Face Processing: The Role of Perceptual Degradation and Holistic Processing

“…Finally, reducing signal strength might not have a general impact on performance but rather only be detrimental for HSF faces because these only contain information for which processing is already degraded by aging. Considering that several studies have linked low acuity and CS loss with face processing (Lott et al, 2005;Norton et al, 2009;Owsley et al, 1981), this is the pattern of results we expected.…”

“…While the finding that SF filtering reduces performance on face tasks has been widely reported in YA (Boutet et al, 2003;Collin, Liu, Troje, McMullen, & Chaudhuri, 2004), our study is the first to report age-related differences in the impact of SF filtering. While correlations between ageassociated low-level vision loss and face processing have been reported elsewhere (Lott et al, 2005;Norton et al, 2009), our study is among a few that have used experimental methods to investigate this link (Croning-Golomb et al, 2007;McCulloch et al, 2011;Owsley et al, 1981). The difficulty for MA and OA to match HSF faces probably arises from age-associated loss in processing HSF information, as indicated by reduced acuity and contrast sensitivity in the HSF range, losses which are evident in OA even after vision has been corrected (Cronin-Golomb et al, 2007).…”

“…Recent meta-analyses indicate that both VA and CS are linked to impaired cognition in aging, even in the absence of known disease (La Fleur & Salthouse, 2014;Monge & Madden, 2016). With respect to faces, several studies have reported an association between perceptual loss and cognitive performance (Lott et al, 2005;Norton et al, 2009). However, few have used experimental methods (Cronin-Golomb, Gilmore, Neargarder, Morrison, & Laudate, 2007;Norton et al, 2009;Owsley et al, 1981).…”

“…Significant age differences in discrimination and recognition of individual faces have been reported for participants as young as 50 years of age (Boutet & Faubert, 2006;Chaby, Jemel, George, Renault, & Fiori, 2001;Lott, Haegerstrom-Portnoy, Schneck, & Brabyn, 2005;Norton, McBain, & Chen, 2009). The negative impact of aging on face processing carries implications for social functioning and for the treatment of older eyewitnesses to crime (Searcy, Bartlett, & Memon, 1999).…”

Dual Sensory Loss: Overview of Problems, Visual Assessment, and Rehabilitation

“…It can be expected that any score ≤1.30 would contribute to difficulty with speechreading and many other tasks. 22 This level of contrast loss is common among older people. In our population, 16 60% of those who were more than 85 years old performed at this level or worse on the Pelli-Robson Chart.…”