- Title
- The functional field of view of older adults is associated with contrast discrimination in the magnocellular not parvocellular pathway
- Creator
- Power, Garry; Conlon, Elizabeth; Zele, Andrew
- Date
- 2021
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/178606
- Identifier
- vital:15441
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa028
- Identifier
- ISBN:1079-5014 (ISSN)
- Abstract
- Objectives: As we age, the functional field of view (FFOV) declines and these declines predict falls and motor vehicle accidents in older adults (Owsley, C. (2013). Visual processing speed. Vision Research, 90, 52-56. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2012.11.014). To increase understanding of possible causes of this decline, the current study explored whether the FFOV in older adults is associated with the sensitivity of the magnocellular and parvocellular sub-cortical pathways. Method: Forty-four younger (M = 27.18, SD = 5.40 years) and 44 older (M = 72.18, SD = 5.82 years) adults completed an FFOV test and the steady- and pulsed-pedestal paradigms of Pokorny and Smith (Pokorny, J., & Smith, V. C. (1997). Psychophysical signatures associated with magnocellular and parvocellular pathway contrast gain. Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, Image Science, and Vision, 14, 2477-2486. doi:10.1364/josaa.14.002477) as measures of magnocellular and parvocellular pathways, respectively. Results: Older adults made more FFOV errors and had higher contrast discrimination thresholds in both the steady- and pulsed-pedestal paradigms, than younger adults. FFOV errors in the younger group were not related to contrast discrimination thresholds. In multiple regression, older group FFOV errors showed a strong unique association with contrast discrimination thresholds mediated via the magnocellular, but not the parvocellular pathway. Discussion: We infer that reduced magnocellular pathway contrast sensitivity may contribute to reduced functional vision in older adults. © 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
- Publisher
- Gerontological Society of America
- Relation
- Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Vol. 76, no. 6 (2021), p. 1086-1094
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.
- Subject
- 1103 Clinical Sciences; 1608 Sociology; 1701 Psychology; Contrast; Functional field of view; Magnocellular; Visual attention
- Reviewed
- Hits: 508
- Visitors: 411
- Downloads: 0