School of Psychology, Chukyo University, Nagoya, Aichi 466-8666, Japan; Human Information Science Laboratory, NTT Communication Science Laboratories, NTT Corporation, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0198, Japan.
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International; Brain Activity Imaging Center, ATR-Promotions, Seika-cho, Kyoto 619-0288, Japan.
Neuroscience. 2018 Oct 1;389:152-160. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.04.040. Epub 2017 May 4.
Age-related changes in auditory and visual perception have an impact on the quality of life. It has been debated how perceptual organization is influenced by advancing age. From the neurochemical perspective, we investigated age effects on auditory and visual bistability. In perceptual bistability, a sequence of sensory inputs induces spontaneous switching between different perceptual objects. We used different modality tasks of auditory streaming and visual plaids. Young and middle-aged participants (20-60years) were instructed to indicate by a button press whenever their perception changed from one stable state to the other. The number of perceptual switches decreased with participants' ages. We employed magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure non-invasively concentrations of the inhibitory neurotransmitter (γ-aminobutyric acid, GABA) in the brain regions of interest. When participants were asked to voluntarily modulate their perception, the amount of effective volitional control was positively correlated with the GABA concentration in the auditory and motion-sensitive areas corresponding to each sensory modality. However, no correlation was found in the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, effective volitional control was reduced with advancing age. Our results suggest that sequential scene analysis in auditory and visual domains is influenced by both age-related and neurochemical factors.
年龄相关的听觉和视觉感知变化会影响生活质量。人们一直在争论感知组织如何受到年龄增长的影响。从神经化学的角度来看，我们研究了年龄对听觉和视觉双稳态的影响。在感知双稳态中，一系列感官输入会引起不同感知物体之间的自发切换。我们使用了听觉流和视觉格子的不同模态任务。年轻和中年参与者（20-60 岁）被指示通过按钮按下来指示他们的感知何时从一种稳定状态切换到另一种稳定状态。感知切换的数量随着参与者年龄的增长而减少。我们采用磁共振波谱技术来测量大脑中感兴趣区域的抑制性神经递质（γ-氨基丁酸，GABA）的浓度。当参与者被要求自愿调节他们的感知时，有效意志控制的量与每个感觉模态对应的听觉和运动敏感区域中的 GABA 浓度呈正相关。然而，在前额叶皮层和前扣带皮层中没有发现相关性。此外，有效意志控制随着年龄的增长而降低。我们的结果表明，听觉和视觉领域的序列场景分析受到年龄相关和神经化学因素的影响。
