Abstract
It is well known that cognitive function in the context of healthy aging can decline. The useful field of view (UFOV) task has long been utilized to investigate cognitive and perceptual decline in healthy aging; performance on this task has been suggested to reflect with multiple sensory, perceptive and cognitive factors. However, the specific contribution of visuo-perceptive processes to performance in the UFOV task is not clear. To this end, we investigated how the performance during the UFOV dual task was related to specific visual, perceptive and cognitive processes. 12 healthy older participants (M age= 64.75, SD= 6.22, 2 male) performed a battery of tasks including OCT scan of the retina, UFOV dual task, interleaved pro/anti-saccade task, contrast and movement threshold task, MOCA, mirrored reverse reach task, spatial working memory task, rapid visual serial presentation task and trail making B. We found significant correlations (p < .05) between the UFOV dual task performance and cognitive (anti-saccade error rates) (r= -0.66) and also visual (retinal thickness) (r=-0.73), perceptual (movement and contrast thresholds) (r= -0.61, r= -0.79) as well as visuomotor processing speeds (reaction times for rapid visual serial presentation, movement reversals) (r= -0.68, r= -0.64). Those findings support the idea that performance in the UFOV dual task reflects multiple processes besides cognitive ones, including visual and perceptual function and that it is a sensitive measure of these functions in healthy aging.