title: Visual masking: a reliable measure for the assessment of cognitive dysfunction in the elderly?
abstract: 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 & 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Berne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Schläpfer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Groner
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lavoyer
authors.forename: H U
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Fisch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*