Shifts in Audiovisual Processing in Healthy Aging

Purpose of Review The integration of information across sensory modalities into unified percepts is a fundamental sensory process upon which a multitude of cognitive processes are based. We review the body of literature exploring aging-related changes in audiovisual integration published over the last 5 years. Specifically, we review the impact of changes in temporal processing, the influence of the effectiveness of sensory inputs, the role of working memory, and the newer studies of intra-individual variability during these processes. Recent Findings Work in the last 5 years on bottom-up influences of sensory perception has garnered significant attention. Temporal processing, a driving factors of multisensory integration, has now been shown to decouple with multisensory integration in aging, despite their co-decline with aging. The impact of stimulus effectiveness also changes with age, where older adults show maximal benefit from multisensory gain at high signal-to-noise ratios. Following sensory decline, high working memory capacities have now been shown to be somewhat of a protective factor against age-related declines in audiovisual speech perception, particularly in noise. Finally, newer research is emerging focusing on the general intra-individual variability observed with aging. Summary Overall, the studies of the past 5 years have replicated and expanded on previous work that highlights the role of bottom-up sensory changes with aging and their influence on audiovisual integration, as well as the top-down influence of working memory.