Journal
NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING
Volume 31, Issue 5, Pages 863-873Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.06.013
Keywords
Aging; Area MT; Degradation; Direction selectivity; Monkey; Pattern cell
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Funding
- Natural Science Foundation of China [30520120072]
- NIH/NIA [R01 AG 17922]
- National Basic Research Program [2006CB500804, 2005CB522803]
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The ability to accurately perceive the direction and speed of moving objects declines during normal aging. This is likely due to functional degradation of cortical neurons. Most neurons in the primate middle temporal area (MT) are direction-selective and their activity is closely linked to the perception of coherent motion. We investigated the mechanisms that underlie this age-related decline by comparing the proportions of direction-selective MT cells in old and young macaque monkeys, using in vivo single-cell recording techniques. Our results showed that the proportion of such cells was lower in old than in young monkeys. Moreover, one type of direction-sensitive cells, pattern cells, was especially sensitive to aging and was affected more severely than another class, component cells. We also found that direction selectivity was affected more severely in MT than in VI of senescent monkeys. Thus, the functional degradation of MT and VI cells may mediate perceptual decline in visual motion tasks in old primates. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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