Exogenous Visual Attention in Aging: Interactions with High-Frequency Thresholds and Working Memory

Healthy aging involves complex sensory and cognitive transitions, yet perceptual performance is often maintained through compensatory mechanisms. This behavioral study investigated how stimulus-driven (exogenous) visual attention, high-frequency hearing thresholds, and core cognitive abilities, specifically those sensitive to healthy aging, jointly influence visual perception during the transition from late middle adulthood to early older age.

Forty healthy adults, divided into late middle adulthood (ages 50–60) and early older age (ages 61–70) groups, performed a Gabor patch contrast discrimination visual task under neutral and exogenous cue conditions. All participants passed standard clinical screenings and underwent high-frequency audiometric testing and NIH Toolbox cognitive assessments.

Linear mixed-effects models revealed that exogenous attention significantly enhanced perceptual sensitivity across both age groups, indicating preserved stimulus-driven mechanisms. Notably, poorer high-frequency hearing thresholds, even within the clinically normal range, were associated with greater attentional benefit, suggesting adaptive cross-modal recruitment. Conversely, cognitive compensation was highly selective. While multiple aging-sensitive domains were assessed, only higher working memory predicted superior performance. Critically, this benefit was restricted to the 50–60 age group with better hearing; it was absent in the 61–70 group and those with poorer hearing across both cohorts. These findings reveal a hierarchical pattern of compensation: while low-level attention remains robustly effective, higher-level working memory support is strictly limited by age and sensory integrity. This suggests a "resource ceiling" that limits cognitive buffering as sensory demands increase, identifying a critical functional window for interventions aimed at preserving compensatory capacity in the aging population.