Feng Jing, Craik Fergus I M, Levine Brian, Moreno Sylvain, Naglie Gary, Choi HeeSun
Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, 2310 Stinson Drive, Raleigh, NC 27695-7650 USA.
Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, Canada.
Eur J Ageing. 2016 Oct 11;14(2):167-177. doi: 10.1007/s10433-016-0399-7. eCollection 2017 Jun.
Age differences in the spatial distribution of attention over a wide field of view have only been described in terms of the spatial extent, leaving the topographical aspect unexplored. This study examined age differences between younger and older adults in good general health in an important topographical characteristic, the asymmetry between the upper and lower visual fields. In Experiment 1, we found age differences across the entire attentional visual field. In addition, age differences were greater in the upper compared to the lower field. In Experiment 2, we examined whether the finding of a greater age difference in the ability to localize a target among distractors in the upper visual field in Experiment 1 was a result of possible differential age differences between the upper and lower visual fields in the ability to localize a target even when there was no distractor competing for attention. Our results suggested that the age differences we observed were linked to age differences in the ability to filter out distractors that compete with the target for attention rather than the ability to process only the target over a wide field of view. While younger adults demonstrated an upper visual field advantage in the ability to localize a target among distractors, there was no such field advantage in older adults. We discuss this finding of diminished upper visual field advantage in older adults in light of an account of pervasive loss of neural specialization with age. We postulate that one possible explanation of age differences in the asymmetry between the upper and lower visual fields may be an adaptation to age-related physical decline. We also discuss important implications of our findings in risks of falls and vehicle crashes.
在广阔视野范围内注意力的空间分布上，年龄差异仅依据空间范围进行了描述，而地形学方面尚未得到探索。本研究调查了健康状况良好的年轻人和老年人在一个重要地形学特征——上下视野不对称方面的年龄差异。在实验1中，我们发现了整个注意力视野范围内的年龄差异。此外，上视野的年龄差异比下视野更大。在实验2中，我们研究了实验1中在上视野干扰物中定位目标能力方面更大的年龄差异这一发现，是否是即使没有干扰物争夺注意力时，上下视野在定位目标能力上可能存在的年龄差异所致。我们的结果表明，我们观察到的年龄差异与过滤与目标争夺注意力的干扰物的能力的年龄差异有关，而非在广阔视野范围内仅处理目标的能力。虽然年轻人在上视野干扰物中定位目标的能力方面表现出优势，但老年人不存在这种视野优势。我们根据随着年龄增长神经特化普遍丧失的观点来讨论老年人上视野优势减弱这一发现。我们推测，上下视野不对称方面年龄差异的一种可能解释可能是对与年龄相关的身体衰退的一种适应。我们还讨论了我们的发现对跌倒风险和车辆碰撞风险的重要影响。
