Visual Masking: A Reliable Measure for the Assessment of Cognitive Dysfunction in the Elderly?

Schläpfer, Thomas E.; Groner, Marina; Lavoyer, Edouard; Fisch, Hans-Ulrich (1991). Visual Masking: A Reliable Measure for the Assessment of Cognitive Dysfunction in the Elderly? Journal of gerontology, 46(4), P157-P161. The Gerontological Society of America 10.1093/geronj/46.4.P157

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Reliable assessment of cognitive dysfunction in the elderly is a prerequisite for the evaluation of treatment of age-related cognitive decline. Psychophysical thresholds are known to be more reliable than psychometric tests, as assessed by stability of performance in visual masking. A backward (Till & Franklin, 1981) and a forward masking study (Coyne, 1981) were replicated. Thereafter, the same volunteers carried out a backward and forward masking task adapted to minimize noncognitive age-related influences: target and mask duration were individually adjusted to control for reduced eye transmissiveness. Attention was assessed with the electrooculogram; a dependent variable insensitive to sporadic decreases of attention was selected. Test-retest stability in the elderly after 2–4 weeks was r = .97 in backward and r = .86 in forward masking. As Alzheimer's disease mainly affects the cortex, backward masking, which is primarily cortical, may be useful to assess aspects of cognitive dysfunction.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Cognitive Psychology, Perception and Methodology
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Geriatric Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

UniBE Contributor:

Groner, Marina, Fisch, Hans-Ulrich

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

ISSN:

0022-1422

Publisher:

The Gerontological Society of America

Language:

English

Submitter:

Marceline Brodmann

Date Deposited:

23 Sep 2020 09:26

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:13

Publisher DOI:

10.1093/geronj/46.4.P157

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.115167

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/115167

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