Visual perception may decline with age: Study

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: A new study suggest the ability to do away with the distractions in older adults can affect how swiftly they process information visually.

It is a known fact that staying on a topic may be more difficult for oldies than for younger people. The reason behind this is that older adults begin to experience a decline in what is known as inhibition -- the ability to inhibit other thoughts in order to pursue the storyline.

The new research showed that decline in inhibition also can affect visual perception.

"There is going to be more or less competition in some of the scenes you look at over the course of the day, so the prediction is that when there is high competition, older adults will take longer to resolve -- to see -- the objects in that scene," said Mary Peterson, Professor of Psychology at University of Arizona in the US.

Inhibition is an important part of neural processing throughout the brain, and it plays a significant role in visual perception.

(With IANS inputs)