Lecture 6: Sensory and Perceptual Changes

Question 1

When it comes to general aging, there is a decline in acuity of senses; what are the senses affected?

Answer 1

Vison
Audition
Somatosensory
Gustatory
Olfactory
Vestibular

Question 2

What are the reasons why visual acuity declines?

Answer 2

changes in our visual system which occur with normal aging
there are also a number of disorders that increase this in prevalence with age

Question 3

What are some examples of age-related changes in vision?

Answer 3

cornea becomes thicker and less curved
arcus senilis
anterior chamber become smaller; aqueous humorous may drain inadequately, causing increased intraocular pressure and glaucoma
iris colour fades and pupil diameter decreases
the lens: continues to grow, becomes less elastic, denser, and yellower this causes changes in colour vision (likelihood of presbyopia increases
vitreous humour becomes more liquid. loose cells may cause shadows; retina: vessels & capillaries narrow, loss & change in chemical sensitivity of rods & cones

Question 4

What are the four leading causes of blindness?

Answer 4

cataracts, age related macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy

Question 5

What are cataracts?

Answer 5

lens become cloudy and develops opaque areas that block light from passing through
usually associated with blurred vision

Question 6

What is the leading cause of blindness?

Answer 6

glaucoma

Question 7

what is glaucoma?

Answer 7

caused by inadequate drainage of the aqueous humor can lead to optic nerve damage
Can be gradually (open angled) or sudden (closed angle)

Question 8

What is macular degeneration?

Answer 8

Tissue in macula deteriorates causing blind spot in the middle of vision
Occurs mostly in individuals over 60; not reversible however, depending on the extent vision loss may be reduced

Question 9

Why does auditory acuity decline? (slide 21)

Answer 9

it is part of the normal changes that occur with age
increased risk of disorder that result in hearing loss

Question 10

What changes are observed in the auditory system in normal aging? (slides 26)

Answer 10

the pinna loses flexibility
and hairs become stiffer
Tympanic, oval window, and round window
membranes become less flexible
Calcification of the ossicles
Lessened efficiency of the
acoustic reflex

Question 11

What are the 3 types of hearing impairment?

Answer 11

conductive, sensorineural and mixed

Question 12

What is a conductive hearing impairment and what are examples?

Answer 12

when something is interfering with transmission of sound through the outer/middle ear; impact cerumen or an arthritic change in ossicles

Question 13

What is sensorineural hearing impairment and what are some examples?

Answer 13

when disorders of the inner ear affect the transmission of sound to auditory pathways or receptors; presbycusis

Question 14

What is a mixed hearing impairment?

Answer 14

a mixture of conductive and sensorineural

Question 15

What are risk factors for hearing loss?

Answer 15

Aging, heredity, occupational noises (construction, farming, factory), recreational noises (snowmobiling, motorcycles, loud music) and medications & illness (meningitis)

Question 16

What are the implications of hearing loss?

Answer 16

An individual with hearing loss will find it difficult to distinguish spoken words, personality changes and many need to wear hearing aids or cochlear implants for profoundly deaf

Question 17

What are 3 hearing disorders that we look at?

Answer 17

presbycusis, tinnitus, otosclerosis

Question 18

What is presbycusis?

Answer 18

high frequency sounds affected, leads to lexical discrimination problems esp. when sounds include a lot of energy at high frequencies
hearing loss that occurs in both ears; usually greater for higher pitched sounds

Question 19

What are the 4 types of presbycusis?

Answer 19

sensory, neural, strial/metabolic and mechanical

Question 20

What is sensory presbycusis?

Answer 20

degeneration of the organ of corti

Question 21

What is neural presbycusis?

Answer 21

loss of neurons of cochlea and higher auditory pathway

Question 22

What is a serial/metabolic presbycusis?

Answer 22

atrophy of fibrous vascular cochlear tissue

Question 23

What is mechanical presbycusis?

Answer 23

affects the basilar membrane of the cochlea

Question 24

What is Tinnitus?

Answer 24

Ringing, roaring, clicking or hissing in the ear
causes are hearing loss, Exposure to loud noise, Medications , Allergies, tumours, issues in the heart, blood vessels and jaws and neck

Question 25

What is Otosclerosis?

Answer 25

Bilateral hearing impairment caused by abnormal bone formation, occurs in oval window and eventually immobilizes the stapes

Question 26

What are interventions for otosclerosis?

Answer 26

hearing aids
surgery; stapedectomy (removal of the
stapes bone; prosthesis is substituted for the
non-functioning stapes bone.

Question 27

How is speech perception affected in aging?

Answer 27

Speech perception declines due to sensory problem (hearing loss) and cognitive changes(processing speed, inhibitory function)
Declines are marked when background noise is present (ie; at a party)

Question 28

What is sensory integration?

Answer 28

when you use visual information to aid speech understanding also known as visual enhancement (occurs for both younger and older adults

Question 29

What is lexical discrimination?

Answer 29

refers to uniquely selecting a single word as the input

Question 30

What is Elderspeak?

Answer 30

manner of communicating to older people
using a slow rate of speaking, simplified syntax,
vocabulary restrictions, and exaggerated prosody on the assumption that their age makes them
cognitively impaired

Question 31

What are features of elderspeak?

Answer 31

Using terms like honey or dear
repeating or paraphrasing what what had just been said
Speaking slowly and with limited vocabulary
Using a singsong voice, change pitch and tone, exaggerate words
Using statement that sound like a questions

Question 32

What are effects of elderspeak?

Answer 32

Can reinforce negative stereotypes about aging and erode an older adults self esteem
Can influence older adults evaluation of their abilities
People exposed to negative images of aging perform significantly worse on memory and balances test and show higher levels of stress

Question 33

How does elderspeak decrease comprehension?

Answer 33

Confusing when words are exaggerated
Hard to understand statement that sounds like a question
Talking too slowly affects the listeners ability to focus on the main point and retain info