Sensory Function and Perception in Dementia

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensory and Motor Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 May 2025 | Viewed by 759

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
Interests: mild cognitive impairment; subjective cognitive impairment; Alzheimer's disease; dementia; ageing; visual attention; methodology; reaction time; intra-individual variability in reaction time
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

According to the World Health Organization, sensory function is a domain that cannot be ignored if we want to improve the lives of older people. Although there is increasing research designed to address the risk of hearing loss and visual loss in the development of cognitive dysfunction, relatively little work has examined the impact on the daily life and wellbeing of older adults who are living with such sensory dysfunction together with cognitive decline. Furthermore, such research has failed to examine all senses, and there is an even greater paucity of research examining the effects of olfactory, gustatory, and haptic dysfunction and multi-sensory dysfunction on the life and wellbeing of people living with cognitive decline. 

Because of the impact per se of sensory dysfunction on the lives of older adults, it needs to be considered especially with respect to the diagnosis, recognition, and explanation of signs and symptoms, follow-up, daily living abilities, care, support, treatment, and intervention related to cognitive decline. 

The aim of the Special Issue is to bring together new research in this area.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Tales
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • ageing 
  • cognitive decline 
  • objectively measured effects of sensory dysfunction in people with cognitive decline 
  • subjective reports of sensory dysfunction in people with cognitive decline

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 1201 KiB  
Article
Individual Differences in the Impact of Distracting Environmental Sounds on the Performance of a Continuous Visual Task in Older Adults
by Leanne Richards, Neil Carter, Claire J. Hanley, Claire Barnes, Huw Summers, Alison Porter and Andrea Tales
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(11), 1048; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14111048 - 23 Oct 2024
Viewed by 559
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Vulnerability to sound distraction is commonly reported in older adults with dementia and tends to be associated with adverse impacts on daily activity. However, study outcome heterogeneity is increasingly evident, with preserved resistance to distraction also evident. Contributory factors may include individual [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Vulnerability to sound distraction is commonly reported in older adults with dementia and tends to be associated with adverse impacts on daily activity. However, study outcome heterogeneity is increasingly evident, with preserved resistance to distraction also evident. Contributory factors may include individual differences in distractibility in older adulthood per se, and failure to consider the influence of how difficult a person found the test. Methods: We therefore measured distractibility in a group of older adults by comparing the performance of a primary visual task (Swansea Test of Attentional Control), which includes an adaptive algorithm to take into account how difficult a person finds the test under both no-sound and sound conditions. Results: Analysis revealed no significant difference in group mean performance between no-sound versus sound conditions [t (33) = 0.181, p = 0.858; Cohen’s effect size d = −0.028], but individual differences in performance both within and between sound and no-sound conditions were evident, indicating that for older adults, distracting sounds can be neutral, detrimental, or advantageous with respect to visual task performance. It was not possible to determine individual thresholds for whether sound versus no-sound conditions affected a person’s actual behaviour. Conclusions: Nevertheless, our findings indicate how variable such effects may be in older adults, which in turn may help to explain outcome heterogeneity in studies including people living with dementia. Furthermore, such within-group heterogeneity highlights the importance of considering a person’s individual performance in order to better understand their behaviour and initiate interventions as required. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensory Function and Perception in Dementia)
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