Perceptual training: Helping seniors see

RIVERSIDE, Calif., Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Elderly adults can improve their vision with perceptual training, U.S. researchers suggest.

G. John Andersen, Rui Ni and Jeffrey Bower at the University of California, Riverside, and Takeo Watanabe at Boston University say this technique may help older adults recover declines in vision due to normal aging.

The study, published in the current online issue of the Journal of Vision, finds the improvement was maintained for as long as three months and suggested a high degree of brain plasticity among the elderly.

"We found that with just two days of training, in one-hour sessions, with difficult stimuli resulted in older subjects seeing as well as younger college-age subjects," Andersen says in a statement.

The researchers determined the vision improvements were not due to practice or familiarity with the task.

"Given the clear impact of age-related declines in vision on driving, mobility and falls, the present study suggests that perceptual learning may be a useful tool for improving the health and well-being of an older population," the researchers say.