Bistable perception in normal aging: perceptual reversibility and its relation to cognition

ABSTRACT

The effects of age on the ability to resolve perceptual ambiguity are unknown, though it depends on frontoparietal attentional networks known to change with age. We presented the bistable Necker cube to 24 middle-aged and OAs (older adults; 56–78 years) and 20 YAs (younger adults; 18–24 years) under passive-viewing and volitional control conditions: Hold one cube percept and Switch between cube percepts. During passive viewing, OAs had longer dominance durations (time spent on each percept) than YAs. In the Hold condition, OAs were less able than YAs to increase dominance durations. In the Switch condition, OAs and YAs did not differ in performance. Dominance durations in either condition correlated with performance on tests of executive function mediated by the frontal lobes. Eye movements (fixation deviations) did not differ between groups. These results suggest that OAs’ reduced ability to hold a percept may arise from reduced selective attention. The lack of correlation of performance between Hold and executive-function measures suggests at least a partial segregation of underlying mechanisms.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• perceptual ambiguity
• Necker cube
• attention
• cognition

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the individuals who participated in this study. Our recruitment efforts were supported, with our gratitude, by Marie Saint-Hilaire, M.D., and Cathi Thomas, R.N., M.S.N. of Boston Medical Center Neurology Associates, Boston area Parkinson’s disease support groups, and the Fox Trial Finder. We thank Laura Pistorino for her assistance in screening and scheduling participants. We also thank Lindsay Clark and Michael Horgan for aspects of tests administration and technical assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, including a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F31 NS074892 to MDS, and RO1 NS067128 to ACG), the Clara Mayo Foundation Fellowship from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University (MDS), the National Science Foundation (NSF SBE-0354378 to AY and BC), and Office of Naval Research (ONR N00014-11-1-0535 to YA and BC). These funding agencies did not have any involvement in the study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, in writing the manuscript, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.