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The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Advance Access published online on March 2, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, doi:10.1093/geronb/gbp008
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Reduced Ability to Detect Facial Configuration in Middle-Aged and Elderly Individuals: Associations With Spatiotemporal Visual Processing

Daniel Norton1, Ryan McBain1 and Yue Chen1,2

1 Visual Psychophysiology Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts
2 Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Massachusetts

Address correspondence to Yue Chen, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Room G06, Centre Building, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478. Email: ychen{at}mclean.harvard.edu


  Abstract

Visual sensitivity decreases with age, and this presumably has an impact on face recognition. However, the relationship between aging in basic visual processing and in the sensory and cognitive mechanisms mediating face recognition is not well understood. Face detection, a foundational step in recognizing faces, relies primarily on sensory information. This study measured the ability to detect facial configuration and contrast detection in young (<40 years), middle–aged (40–59 years), and elderly adults (>59 years). Performance on both face detection and contrast detection was moderately degraded in the middle-aged group compared with the young group and was further degraded in elderly adults. Face detection was correlated strongly with contrast sensitivities, but only weakly with verbal IQ. The results suggest that face detection ability begins to reduce in early aging, and is associated with spatiotemporal visual processing.

Key Words: Aging • Contrast detection • Face recognition • Vision

Received July 15, 2008; Accepted December 20, 2008

Decision Editor: Rosemary Blieszner, PhD


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