UA Study Reveals How Vision and Inhibition Decline with Age
By Alexis Blue, University Relations
A new University of Arizona study offers fresh insights into how age-related cognitive decline affects visual processing in older adults. Specifically, researchers have found that deficits in inhibition—the brain’s ability to suppress irrelevant information— can impact how quickly seniors interpret what they see.
Why Older Adults Struggle to “Stay on Topic” — Visually
It’s no secret that older adults can sometimes veer off-topic when telling stories. What starts as a memory about a snowy school day can quickly drift into tales about vacations or grandchildren. According to researchers, this has less to do with memory and more to do with the brain’s declining ability to inhibit competing thoughts.
Studies show that inhibition deficits in aging can make it harder for older adults to suppress predictable or familiar responses. For example, when asked to complete the sentence “I take my coffee milk and…” with the word “pajamas” instead of “sugar,” older adults are more likely to blurt out “sugar”—the more probable but incorrect answer—because they can’t suppress the high-probability response as easily as younger adults.
How Inhibition Affects Visual Perception
That same cognitive inhibition plays a vital role in visual perception. The brain constantly processes multiple interpretations of a scene, weighing competing possibilities before settling on the most likely interpretation. When inhibition declines with age, this competition becomes harder to resolve, resulting in slower object recognition.
Mary Peterson, professor of psychology and director of the Cognitive Science Program at the University of Arizona, explains: “Our work has suggested that the brain first detects all the borders in a scene and then accesses object properties on both sides. These interpretations compete by inhibiting one another. The one with more supporting evidence wins.”
The Study: Visual Tasks, Age Differences, and Perception Speed
In the study, published in the Journal of Vision, researchers presented participants with white-on-black silhouette images. These included both familiar shapes (like apples) and novel shapes (meaningless forms), some of which contained hidden, competing outlines in the background—such as the contours of seahorses. These background shapes created high inhibitory competition, demanding greater cognitive effort to resolve.
Participants included two groups:
- Younger adults: Average age 20
- Older adults: Average age 66
Although both groups ultimately recognized the same objects, older adults took longer—particularly when images involved greater competition between figure and background. This finding confirms that age slows visual perception when inhibitory processes are taxed.
Implications for Vision, Safety, and Aging
Lead author John A.E. Anderson of York University emphasized that the findings are important because they show how distraction is processed very rapidly and unconsciously. “Older adults are less able to tolerate this ambiguity than younger adults,” he said.
This insight may have real-world implications for older adults navigating low-visibility environments such as fog or dim lighting, where identifying shapes and boundaries is more challenging. Visual confusion in these situations could potentially lead to safety hazards, delayed reactions, or difficulty navigating complex environments.
The Neuroscience Behind It
The researchers believe that the inhibition deficits observed in older adults may be linked to a decline in the brain’s GABA neurotransmitters, which are responsible for inhibitory signaling. More studies are needed to confirm this connection, but it supports ongoing research into the biological roots of age-related cognitive slowing.
“There’s going to be more or less competition in some of the scenes you look at over the course of the day,” said Peterson. “So the prediction is that when there is high competition, older adults will take longer to resolve—to see—the objects in that scene.”
Conclusion
This study provides valuable insight into how aging affects both thought and sight, reinforcing the importance of understanding brain-based changes in perception. By learning more about these processes, researchers hope to develop tools and environments that support healthy aging and better visual functioning for older adults.