Laurin Anne-Sophie, Redureau Noémie, Ouerfelli-Ethier Julie, Gao Christine, Tolan Georgiana, Balan Daria, Rafai Amine, Pisella Laure, Khan Aarlenne Zein
School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, U1028 UMR5292, Trajectoires, Bron, France.
J Vis. 2025 Oct 1;25(12):1. doi: 10.1167/jov.25.12.1.
During visual search, our attention extends around each fixation. It has been suggested that, in aging, there is a reduced attentional field, leading to visual function declines. To investigate the attentional field, 30 younger and 20 older adults performed a pop-out visual search task. We estimated each participant's attentional field size based on their search times in the presence of different sizes of gaze-contingent visible windows (25°, 20°, and 15° around fixation). Further, we tested whether performance in the visual search task was related to peripheral visual function. Participants performed a contrast discrimination task and two motion perception tasks (local and global motion perception). In these tasks, stimuli were presented at two different peripheral eccentricities (5° and 10°). Overall, older adults took longer than younger adults to report the presence of the target in the control full-view pop-out search task. Compared to younger participants, they also had a significantly smaller attentional field. In addition, irrespective of eccentricity, older adults had higher peripheral contrast discrimination thresholds and a higher threshold in global motion perception, but not local. We also found negative correlations between attentional field size and thresholds for contrast discrimination and for global motion perception for older adults. In conclusion, we observed reduced attentional fields in aging, which were associated with lowered contrast and lowered global motion perception. These results highlight the importance of spatial covert attention in peripheral visual function and support the notion of a decline in the functions of the dorsal visual network in aging.
在视觉搜索过程中，我们的注意力会在每次注视周围扩展。有人提出，随着年龄增长，注意力范围会缩小，导致视觉功能下降。为了研究注意力范围，30名年轻人和20名老年人进行了一项弹出式视觉搜索任务。我们根据参与者在存在不同大小的注视相关可见窗口（注视点周围25°、20°和15°）时的搜索时间，估计了每个参与者的注意力范围大小。此外，我们测试了视觉搜索任务中的表现是否与周边视觉功能有关。参与者进行了一项对比度辨别任务和两项运动感知任务（局部和全局运动感知）。在这些任务中，刺激物在两个不同的周边偏心率（5°和10°）下呈现。总体而言，在对照全视野弹出式搜索任务中，老年人报告目标出现的时间比年轻人长。与年轻参与者相比，他们的注意力范围也明显更小。此外，无论偏心率如何，老年人的周边对比度辨别阈值更高，全局运动感知阈值也更高，但局部运动感知阈值没有差异。我们还发现老年人的注意力范围大小与对比度辨别阈值和全局运动感知阈值之间存在负相关。总之，我们观察到随着年龄增长注意力范围缩小，这与对比度降低和全局运动感知降低有关。这些结果突出了空间隐蔽注意力在周边视觉功能中的重要性，并支持了衰老过程中背侧视觉网络功能下降的观点。
