Age-related changes in visual pseudoneglect (original) (raw)
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Spatial Bias and Right Hemisphere Function: Sex-Specific Changes with Aging
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 2011
Patterns of cerebral asymmetry related to visuospatial functions may change with age. The typical leftward bias on a line bisection task may reflect cerebral asymmetry. With age, such leftward bias decreases. This study demonstrated that the age-related decrease of leftward bias may actually be sex-specific. In addition, previous research suggests that young adults’ deviation in line bisection may reflect asymmetric hemispheric activation of perceptual–attentional “where” spatial systems, rather than motor-intentional “aiming” spatial systems; thus, we specifically fractionated “where” and “aiming” bias of men and women ranging in age from 22 to 93 years old. We observed that older men produced greater rightward line bisection errors, of primarily “where” spatial character. However, women's errors remained leftward biased, and did not significantly change with age. “Where” spatial systems may be linked to cortico-cortical processing networks involving the posterior part of the d...
Age-Related Hemispheric Asymmetry in Object Discrimination
2002
Young and elderly observers judged whether two sequentially presented images,in either the left or right visual field (LVF or RVF) were the same or different. The two objects depicted were always from the same entry-level category, but could differ only in viewpoint (a ‘‘same’’ trial--observers were instructed to ignore viewpoint changes) and/or in exemplar,(a ‘‘different’’ trial). Young observers showed,no difference in sensitivity across visual fields. Elderly observers were less sensitive overall than young observers, and were less sensitive to stimuli presented in the LVF-RH than in the RVF-LH. The results of this experiment support the hypothesis that one type of visual cognitive functioning declines with age faster in the right hemisphere,than in the left hemisphere. The brain is divided into two hemispheres that,
Aging changes 3D perception: Evidence for hemispheric rebalancing of lateralized processes
Neuropsychologia, 2017
When judging the 3D shape of a shaded image, young observers assume that the light source is placed above and to the left. This leftward bias has been attributed to hemispheric lateralization or experiential factors. Since aging is associated with loss of hemispheric lateralization, in the current study we measured the effect of aging on the assumed light source direction. Older participants exhibited, on average, a decreased left bias compared to young participants, as well as greater within-group variability in the distribution of assumed light source directions. In a separate sample of young and old participants, we replicated the age related effect in the assumed light source direction. Furthermore, in both young and old participants the assumed light source direction and the lateralized bias in a line bisection task were correlated. These findings suggest that diminished hemispheric lateralization, which accompanies aging, may affect the perception of the 3D structure of shaded surfaces. Shape from shading may thus provide a simple behavioral tool to track age related changes in hemispheric organization.
A B S T R A C T The objective of this study was to validate a line bisection judgement (LBJ) task for use in investigating the lateralized cerebral bases of spatial attention in a sample of 51 right-handed healthy participants. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the participants performed a LBJ task that was compared to a visuomotor control task during which the participants made similar saccadic and motoric responses. Cerebral lateralization was determined using a voxel-based functional asymmetry analysis and a hemispheric functional lateralization index (HFLI) computed from fMRI contrast images. Behavioural attentional deviation biases were assessed during the LBJ task and a " paper and pencil " symbol cancellation task (SCT). Individual visuospatial skills were also evaluated. The results showed that both the LBJ and SCT tasks elicited leftward spatial biases in healthy subjects, although the biases were not correlated, which indicated their independence. Neuroimaging results showed that the LBJ task elicited a right hemispheric lateralization, with rightward asymmetries found in a large posterior occipito-parietal area, the posterior calcarine sulcus (V1p) and the temporo-occipital junction (TOJ) and in the inferior frontal gyrus, the anterior insula and the superior medial frontal gyrus. The comparison of the LBJ asymmetry map to the lesion map of neglect patients who suffer line bisection deviation demonstrated maximum overlap in a network that included the middle occipital gyrus (MOG), the TOJ, the anterior insula and the inferior frontal region, likely subtending spatial LBJ bias. Finally, the LBJ task-related cerebral lateralization was specifically correlated with the LBJ spatial bias but not with the SCT bias or with the visuospatial skills of the participants. Taken together, these results demonstrated that the LBJ task is adequate for investigating spatial lateralization in healthy subjects and is suitable for determining the factors underlying the variability of spatial cerebral lateralization.
Brain and Cognition, 2003
This study investigated age and responding-hand (left, right, and bimanual) related changes in visuospatial attention. Two tasks were completed by 107 neurologically normal right-handed subjects ranging in age from 5 to 70 years and distributed across four age groups. Task-specific differences between groups were apparent. In the line-bisection task, the younger and older groups displayed symmetrical neglect while the young and middle groups displayed pseudoneglect. In the chimeric-faces task the leftward bias was less pronounced in the older group and more susceptible to responding-hand effects in the middle and older groups. Whilst results, especially those of the bimanual method, provided strong support for an activation model, they imposed an age limitation on its appropriateness as an explanation for performance on the chimeric-faces task. Results are discussed as reflecting changes in the corpus callosum and right hemisphere.
Experimental Gerontology, 2016
The present study investigated possible changes occurring in peripheral vision, perceptual asymmetries and visuospatial attention in oldest-old adults and compared their performance with that of young and young-old adults. Method: We examined peripheral vision (PV) and perceptual asymmetries in the three age groups for stimuli varying in eccentricity (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, designed to investigate possible changes in spatial attention, the same participants performed an exogenous orienting attention task. Results: Experiment 1 showed that the three age groups performed the task similarly but differed in processing speed. Importantly, the oldest-old group showed a different perceptual pattern than the other groups suggesting a lack of specificity in visual asymmetries. Experiment 2 indicated that the validity effects emerged later in the young-old and even later in the oldest-old participants, showing a delayed time course of inhibition of return (IOR). Orienting effects, however, were preserved with age. Discussion: Taken together, these results indicate that the three age groups displayed similar perceptual and orienting attention patterns, but with differences in processing speed. Importantly, age (only in the oldest-old adults) altered perceptual visual asymmetries. These results suggest that some neural plasticity is still present even in oldest-old adults, but a lack of specificity occurs in advanced age.
Age differences and similarities in patterns of cerebral hemispheric asymmetry
Psychology and Aging, 1995
Younger (A/age = 20.4 years) and older (Mage = 70.7 years) adults participated in 3 visual halffield experiments. These were designed to examine specific aspects of hemispheric asymmetry: (a) hemispheric dominance for phonetic-linguistic processing (as measured by identification of nonword trigrams), (b) hemispheric differences in trigram processing strategy, (c) characteristic perceptual biases thought to reflect hemispheric arousal asymmetries, and (d) hemispheric dominance for processing emotions shown on faces. Patterns of left-right asymmetries were comparable for older and younger participants, and intercorrelations among the various measures of asymmetry were similar for both groups. In view of the present results, it seems unlikely that changes in hemispheric asymmetry contribute significantly to age-related changes in cognitive functioning. Age-related changes in cognitive functioning have been the focus of much study and theorizing over the last 50 years or so. The goal of such research is to better understand the causes underlying age changes in cognitive processes. At the level of brain function, one possibility is that there are age-related changes in certain aspects of cerebral hemisphere asymmetry that might underlie age-related changes in cognition. A variety of cognitive functions depend on the efficient workings of the cerebral hemispheres, both independently and in tandem (Hellige, 1993a, 1993b). Certainly, a disruption of the normal function and interaction of the two hemispheres would have a negative impact on cognition. The present study examined the hypothesis that aging is associated with changes in the normal pattern of hemispheric asymmetry that could in turn have implications for normal cognitive functioning. A corollary to the general hypothesis concerning age-related changes in hemispheric asymmetry is the more specific notion that the right hemisphere declines faster than the left hemisphere (e.g., Ellis & Oscar-Berman, 1989;KJisz, 1978;Schaie& Schaie, 1977). It has been suggested that this right hemisphere aging may be responsible for a variety of age-related cognitive deficits (for a discussion, see Mittenberg, Seidenberg, O'Leary, & DiGiulio, 1989). Evidence for differential right hemisphere decline with age comes from studies such as that reported by Goldstein and Shelly (1981), who compared patterns ofneuropsychological test performance for normal male participants 20 to 70 years of age with the profiles of patients with left, right,
Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 1999
Visual processing of global and local features differentially engages the right and left hemispheres and requires different allocations of spatial attention. To further understand the decline in visual cognition and visual attention with age, we studied the performance of healthy young subjects and healthy elders on a global-local figures task. The results showed that elders processed global images more quickly when presented in the left visual field and local images in the right visual field, similarly to the young controls. However, we did observe a significant impairment in the elders' ability to process global figures compared with local figures, despite there being no overall difference between global and local processing speed among the young. It is thought that this age-related decline in global processing is related to the narrowed attentional field that can be demonstrated in other age-related visual processing declines such as visual search and useful field of view