Apparently, older adults experience deficits in inhibition, which can affect how quickly they process information visually, according to a new study. Inhibition is an important part of neural processing throughout the brain, and it plays a significant role in visual perception. For example, evidence suggests that when we look at an object or a scene, our brain unconsciously considers alternative possibilities. These competing alternatives inhibit one another, with the brain effectively weeding out the competition before perceiving what is there. With regard to vision, age-related declines in the efficiency of inhibitory processes have been demonstrated in research involving simple perception tasks, such as the ability to detect symmetry and discriminate between shapes. Researchers from University of Arizona set out to see if the same deficits are evident when it comes to more complicated visual tasks. Their findings, published in the Journal of Vision, suggest that they are. https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/research-shows-how-visual-perception-slows-age Journal article: http://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2521391
