Improvement in optic target detection and reaction time by acoustic stimulation: comparison between elderly and young

The purpose of this study was to investigate a measuring system that can diagnose an initial dementia. We focused on the relationship between an initial dementia and perceptual motor coordination that is concerned with location. In this paper, non-dementia elderly subject and young subject pointing movements to a visual target were measured in three conditions. Condition 1: only the target was presented. Condition 2: auditory stimulation was added at a location the same distance from the center as that of the target but in the opposite direction. Condition 3: auditory stimulation was added at the same location as the target. The results showed that in condition 3, latency was shorter and the error rate of pointing movement was lower than in the other conditions. These results suggest that, it is possible to measure the ability of perceptual motor coordination and to control the ability to detect a visual target by auditory stimulation.