Cognitive Reaction Time and Aging

Objective: To study natural aging, cognition was qualitatively studied among sensory modalities. Design: Cognition was studied in a decision making task with the reaction time (RT) to visual cues, auditory cues, and vibrotactile cues. Materials and Methods: Seventy-nine volunteers, aged from 48 to 88 years, participated in this study. They had no history of visual, auditory and sensory disorders and they got scores above 25 points with a questionnaire of the revised version of Hasegawa's Dementia Scale. They were asked to push a button quickly as they could at the same side as the cue recognized. Results: The mean cognitive reaction time was 0.51 sec +/- 0.182 for the visual cues, 0.59 sec +/- 0.375 for the auditory cues, and 0.62 sec +/- 0.330 for the vibrotactile cues, respectively. The analysis of variance showed a significant difference among RTs (P = 0.0071); the post hoc showed significant between RTs for the visual cues and the vibrotactile cues (P = 0.0025). The regression analysis showed the predictive equations; [RT] = 0.004 x [AGE] + 0.194 with the multiple coefficient of correlation of 0.24 (Piason's test: P < 0.05) for the visual cognition, [RT] = 0.009 x [AGE] - 0.036 with the multiple coefficient of correlation of 0.23 (P < 0.05) for the auditory cognition, and [RT] = 0.009 x [AGE] - 0.042 with the multiple coefficient of correlation of 0.28 (P < 0.05) for the vibrotactile cognition. Conclusion: Visual cognition was quicker than vibrotactile cognition. Cognitive responses should deteriorate with aging at respective speed across various sensory modalities. Visual cognition deteriorated at less speed than auditory and vibrotactile cognitions along aging.