The effects of age on visual perception of sine-wave gratings at low luminance / Os efeitos da idade na percepção visual de grades senoidais em luminância baixa

• Main Authors: Natanael Antonio dos Santos, Adriana Bastos Oliveira, Renata Maria Toscano Barreto Lyra Nogueira, Éllen Dias Nicácio da Cruz, Maria Lúcia de Bustamante Simas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2006-01-01
• Series: Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica
• Subjects: Visual perception; contrast sensitivity; aging; spatial frequency; forced-choice staircase method
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-79722006000300010&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=pt

The aim of this work was to investigate the contrast sensitivity function for sine-wave gratings in the range between 0.25-2 cpd in young and older adults (20-23, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 years old) using low luminance. All subjects were free from identifiable ocular disease and had normal acuity. We measured the contrast thresholds for 30 participants (six volunteers in each age) using the psychophysical forced-choice staircase method. In this method the volunteers had to choose the stimulus containing a test frequency at low contrast (e.g., a sine-wave grating), or another neutral stimulus at mean luminance (0.7 cd/m2). The results showed significant changes of CSF for sine-wave gratings at 1 and 2 cpd for the adults 50-59 and 60-69 years old compared to the adults of 20-23 years old. These results suggest age-related changes in the CSF for sine-wave grating at low luminance levels.