Age-related differences in visual perception: a PET study. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • To assess age-related differences in cortical activation during form perception, two classes of visual textures were shown to young and older subjects undergoing positron emission tomography (PET). Subjects viewed even textures that were rich in rectangular blocks and extended contours and random textures that lacked these organized form elements. Within-group significant increases in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during even stimulation relative to random stimulation in young subjects were seen in occipital, inferior and medial temporal regions, and cerebellum, and in older subjects, in posterior occipital and frontal regions. Group by texture type interactions revealed significantly smaller rCBF increases in older subjects relative to young in occipital and medial temporal regions. These results indicate that young subjects activate the occipitotemporal pathway during form perception, whereas older subjects activate occipital and frontal regions. The between-group differences suggest that age-related reorganization of cortical activation occur during early visual processes in humans.

publication date

  • January 1, 2000

Research

keywords

  • Aging
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed
  • Visual Perception

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0034622219

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/s0197-4580(00)00144-5

PubMed ID

  • 10924775

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 21

issue

  • 4