Table 3.
Summary of studies investigating the impact of aging on perceptual thresholds.
| Study | Subjects | Stimuli | Findings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seemungal et al. (41) | • 14 young (19–37 years) • 9 older (56–75 years) |
Triangular velocity profile, 10 s | • Yaw rotation thresholds were not significantly different between young and older adults. |
| Chang et al. (82) | • 19 young (20–26 years) • 16 older (63–84 years) |
5 s of sinusoidal rotations | • Yaw rotation thresholds were not significantly different between young and older adults. |
| Kingma (83) | • 28 subjects (22–60; seven/decade) | Raised sinusoids (5 periods maximum) | • X-translation thresholds (1 Hz) showed a significant increase with age. • Y-translation thresholds (1 Hz) did not show a significant increase with age. |
| Roditi and Crane (34) | • 16 younger adults (21–49) • 8 older adults (50–8 years) |
Single cycle of sinusoidal acceleration | • Z-translation (0.5 and 1 Hz), y-translation (0.5 and 1 Hz) and x-translation (0.5 Hz) thresholds were significantly higher in older adults compared to younger adults. • Yaw rotation (0.5 and 1 Hz) and x-translation (1 Hz) thresholds were not significantly different between younger and older adults. |
| Agrawal et al. (20) | • 42 healthy controls (15–72 years) | Raised cosine velocity profile | • Z-translation (0.5 Hz), y-translation (0.5 Hz) and x-translation (0.5 Hz) thresholds showed a significant positive correlation with age. |
| Bremova et al. (37) | • 34 healthy controls (mean: 44.6 years, SD: 15.2) | Raised cosine velocity profile | • Z-translation (1 Hz), y-translation (1 Hz) and x-translation (1 Hz) thresholds showed a significant positive correlation with age. |
| Bermudez et al. (37), Karmali et al. (84), and Beylergil et al. (85)a | • 105 subjects (18–80 years) | Single cycle of sinusoidal acceleration | • Z-translation (1 Hz), y-translation (1 Hz), and roll tilt (0.2 and 1 Hz) thresholds were constant below ~42 years of age and displayed a significant monotonic increase between 42 and 80. • Yaw rotation thresholds (1 Hz) did not show significant increases with age when examined in isolation by Karmali et al. (84). |