Older adults do not show enhanced benefits from multisensory information on speeded perceptual discrimination tasks

Atkin, Christopher; Stacey, Jemaine E.; Allen, Harriet A.; Henshaw, Helen; Roberts, Katherine L.; Badham, Stephen P.

Abstract

Some research has shown that older adults benefit more from multisensory information than do young adults. However, more recent evidence has shown that the multisensory age benefit varies considerably across tasks. In the current study, older (65 – 80) and young (18 – 30) adults (N = 191) completed a speeded perceptual discrimination task either online or face-to-face to assess task response speed. We examined whether presenting stimuli in multiple sensory modalities (audio-visual) instead of one (audio-only or visual-only) benefits older adults more than young adults. Across all three experiments, a consistent speeding of response was found in the multisensory condition compared to the unisensory conditions for both young and older adults. Furthermore, race model analysis showed a significant multisensory benefit across a broad temporal interval. Critically, there were no significant differences between young and older adults. Taken together, these findings provide strong evidence in favour of a multisensory benefit that does not differ across age groups, contrasting with prior research.

Citation

Atkin, C., Stacey, J. E., Allen, H. A., Henshaw, H., Roberts, K. L., & Badham, S. P. (2024). Older adults do not show enhanced benefits from multisensory information on speeded perceptual discrimination tasks. Neurobiology of Aging, 142, 65-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2024.08.003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 12, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Aug 21, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-10
• Deposit Date: Sep 9, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 11, 2024
• Journal: Neurobiology of Aging
• Electronic ISSN: 1558-1497
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 142
• Pages: 65-72
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2024.08.003
• Keywords: Multisensory, Visual, Auditory, Aging
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/39446210
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197458024001349?via%3Dihub
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Older adults do not show enhanced benefits from multisensory information on speeded perceptual discrimination tasks; Journal Title: Neurobiology of Aging; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2024.08.003; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.