Compromised Temporal Responsivity in Fusiform Areas by Aging

Makoto Miyakoshi¹, Annabel Shen-Hsing Chen², Kayako Matsuo³, Toshiharu Nakai

To study the aging effect on neural mechanism of visual repetition, we performed an fMRI study. Participants saw inside and outside scenes repeatedly for five blocks, and the first two blocks (eight repetitions for each scene) were compared with the last two blocks for Young and Elderly groups. The results showed that the Elderly group has longer time-constant for the visual repetition effect to take place within fusiform areas and the occipital cortex. The results supported the conclusion that the aging effect on visual repetition is represented by the compromised slew rate i.e., temporal responsivity in the fusiform gyri.