Older adults preserve audiovisual integration through enhanced cortical activations, not by recruiting new regions.

ABSTRACT: Effective interactions with the environment rely on the integration of multisensory signals: Our brains must efficiently combine signals that share a common source, and segregate those that do not. Healthy ageing can change or impair this process. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study assessed the neural mechanisms underlying age differences in the integration of auditory and visual spatial cues. Participants were presented with synchronous audiovisual signals at various degrees of spatial disparity and indicated their perceived sound location. Behaviourally, older adults were able to maintain localisation accuracy. At the neural level, they integrated auditory and visual cues into spatial representations along dorsal auditory and visual processing pathways similarly to their yo

SUBMITTER: Jones SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10871488 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature