TY - JOUR
T1 - Visual masking
T2 - A reliable measure for the assessment of cognitive dysfunction in the elderly?
AU - Schlapfer, T. E.
AU - Groner, M.
AU - Lavoyer, E.
AU - Fisch, H. U.
PY - 1991
Y1 - 1991
N2 - 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 and 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.
AB - 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 and 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.
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U2 - 10.1093/geronj/46.4.P157
DO - 10.1093/geronj/46.4.P157
M3 - Article
C2 - 2071840
AN - SCOPUS:0025816923
SN - 0022-1422
VL - 46
SP - P157-P161
JO - Journals of Gerontology
JF - Journals of Gerontology
IS - 4
ER -