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

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.

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

“…With respect to faces, expertise develops through extensive experience in individuating faces from childhood to adulthood (Grill-Spector, Golarai, & Gabrieli, 2008). Our finding that the context congruency effect is robust in MA and OA despite reduced signal strength suggests that holistic processing might partly compensate for perceptual degradation in aging (for a discussion of perceptual degradation and compensatory mechanisms, see Bertone et al, 2007;Monge & Madden, 2016).…”

“…Loss of CS begins at 50 years of age, especially at high spatial frequencies (SF), where the loss might be as high as 30% relative to younger adults (e.g., Neargarder, Stone, Cronin-Golomb, & Oross, 2003;Owsley, Sekuler, & Boldt, 1981). 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).…”

“…The perceptual degradation hypothesis predicts that experimental manipulations that reduce perceptual signal strength should have a greater detrimental effect on OA than YA because OA might have difficulty deploying topdown processes to compensate for the decrease in bottomup input (Monge & Madden, 2016). The inclusion of both LSF and HSF conditions allowed us to examine the general impact of reduced signal strength on performance as well as the impact of presenting faces that only contain information within the range of SF that is most affected by aging.…”

“…Indeed, the perceptual degradation hypothesis stipulates that different cognitive processes might be differently affected by the compounded effect of age-related perceptual degradation and experimental manipulations that diminish signal strength depending on the deployment of compensatory mechanisms (Bertone, Bettinelli, & Faubert, 2007;Monge & Madden, 2016;Schneider & Pichora-Fuller, 2000). Human expertise in face processing may have led to the development of a robust holistic processing mechanism that prevails under conditions of signal deterioration (see Richler, Wong, & Gauthier, 2011, for a discussion of the link between expertise and holistic processing).…”

Motoric functions and cognition in elderly

“…"Impoverishment" of cognitive capacities occurs during the aging process [6]. The information degradation hypothesis claims that perceptual degradation of signal inputs caused by neurobiological processes connected with aging cause errors in the processing of perceptual information finally leading to disruption of higher order cognitive processes [7]. Reduced capacity for discrimination or differentiation stimulus causes damage in a large number of aspects of cognitive function associated with aging.…”