Paraskevoudi Nadia, Balcı Fuat, Vatakis Argiro
Multisensory and Temporal Processing Lab (MultiTimeLab), Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Department of Psychology, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2018 May 9. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13734.
As we age, there is a wide range of changes in motor, sensory, cognitive, and temporal processing due to alterations in the functioning of the central nervous and musculoskeletal systems. Specifically, aging is associated with degradations in gait; altered processing of the individual sensory systems; modifications in executive control, memory, and attention; and changes in temporal processing. These age-related alterations are often inter-related and have been suggested to result from shared neural substrates. Additionally, the overlap between these brain areas and those controlling walking raises the possibility of facilitating performance in several tasks by introducing protocols that can efficiently target all four domains. Attempts to counteract these negative effects of normal aging have been focusing on research to prevent falls and/or enhance cognitive processes, while ignoring the potential multisensory benefits accompanying old age. Research shows that the aging brain tends to increasingly rely on multisensory integration to compensate for degradations in individual sensory systems and for altered neural functioning. This review covers the age-related changes in the above-mentioned domains and the potential to exploit the benefits associated with multisensory integration in aging so as to improve one's mobility and enhance sensory, cognitive, and temporal processing.
随着年龄的增长，由于中枢神经和肌肉骨骼系统功能的改变，运动、感觉、认知和时间处理方面会出现广泛的变化。具体而言，衰老与步态退化、个体感觉系统处理过程的改变、执行控制、记忆和注意力的变化以及时间处理的改变有关。这些与年龄相关的改变往往相互关联，有人认为它们是由共同的神经基质导致的。此外，这些脑区与控制行走的脑区之间的重叠增加了通过引入能够有效针对所有四个领域的方案来提高多项任务表现的可能性。对抗正常衰老负面影响的尝试一直集中在预防跌倒和/或增强认知过程的研究上，而忽略了老年所伴随的潜在多感官益处。研究表明，衰老的大脑越来越倾向于依靠多感官整合来补偿个体感觉系统的退化和神经功能的改变。这篇综述涵盖了上述领域中与年龄相关的变化，以及利用衰老过程中多感官整合相关益处来改善行动能力、增强感觉、认知和时间处理的潜力。
