Grant: Operating Grant

Most people know that visual acuity -- our ability to see fine details -- gets worse as we age. However, many other aspects of vision also deteriorate with age. For example, older adults are less able to perceive complex patterns of motion, or the shapes of contours embedded in clutter. These changes in vision that occur during normal healthy aging can restrict the mobility and independence of older adults, and affect behaviour in many everyday tasks. Importantly, many of these changes are not linked to the optical qualities of our eyes. Instead, they are linked to subtle changes in the way the brain processes visual information and therefore cannot be corrected by waring glasses or having cataract surgery. Furthermore, these changes often are not detected by standard clinical tests, which often underestimate the true extent of visual deficits in elderly people. The ultimate goals of our research are to i) provide better descriptions of the effects of normal aging on vision; ii) link behavioural deficits with changes in the brain; and iii) clarify how these changes affect behaviour in everyday tasks.