Hugenschmidt Christina E, Mozolic Jennifer L, Laurienti Paul J
Department of Radiology, Wake Forest University, School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
Neuroreport. 2009 Mar 4;20(4):349-53. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e328323ab07.
Previous research shows that modality-specific selective attention attenuates multisensory integration in healthy young adults. In addition, older adults evidence enhanced multisensory integration compared with younger adults. We hypothesized that these increases were because of changes in top-down suppression, and therefore older adults would show multisensory integration while selectively attending. Performance of older and younger adults was compared on a cued discrimination task. Older adults had greater multisensory integration than younger adults in all conditions, yet were still able to reduce integration using selective attention. This suggests that attentional processes are intact in older adults, but are unable to compensate for an overall increase in the amount of sensory processing during divided attention.
先前的研究表明，特定感觉通道的选择性注意会削弱健康年轻成年人的多感官整合。此外，与年轻成年人相比，老年人表现出更强的多感官整合能力。我们推测这些增强是由于自上而下抑制的变化，因此老年人在选择性注意时会表现出多感官整合。在一项线索辨别任务中比较了老年人和年轻人的表现。在所有条件下，老年人的多感官整合能力都比年轻人更强，但他们仍然能够通过选择性注意来减少整合。这表明老年人的注意力过程是完整的，但在分散注意力时无法补偿感觉处理量的总体增加。
