The environment constantly presents us with huge amounts of information. To pursuit our goals, we have to attend selectively to relevant information and/or attenuate competing irrelevant information (Shiffrin, 1988). As compared to young adults (aged 18–30), older adults (65+ years old) seem less efficient in filtering out irrelevant information (Healey et al., 2008). In the present study, we examined the efficiency of filtering processes in both young and older adults by using a line bisection paradigm (Chieffi et al., 2012). Two groups of twenty right-handed subjects participated in the study: young (aged 21-30) and older participants (aged 68-80). Subjects were required to bisect a line that was flanked, at one end, by a pair of distractors. Stimuli were presented in the horizontal, radial, and vertical dimension. The distractors influenced bisection performance in both groups, since all participants misbisected lines in opposite direction with respect to the location of the flanking distractors. However, when the stimuli were oriented horizontally, the influence of distractors was more pronounced in older subjects. These findings suggest that aging may selectively affect attentional filtering processes operating in the horizontal spatial dimension.

Chieffi S et al. Exp Brain Res. 2012;219(4):489-98.

Healey MK et al. Prog Brain Res. 2008;169:353-63.

Shiffrin RM (1988). In Atkinson RC et al. (eds), Stevens´Handbook of Experimental Psychology. Wiley, New York.