Individual differences reveal distinct age-related reorganizations in spatial channels for luminance and texture processing

Aging impairs vision, but its specific impact on the neural channels underlying pattern processing is unknown. By examining individual differences in behavioral data from 52 younger and 50 older adults, we investigated how aging reorganizes underlying channels for detecting first-order (defined by luminance static or in motion) and second-order (defined by contrast, motion, or orientation) patterns. We identified a key organizational feature in youth on spatial processing: a global factor supporting all these pattern types at high spatial frequencies. Critically, this global factor was significantly weakened in older adults. Furthermore, high-frequency motion processing, which was integrated into this global factor in the young, became isolated and degraded with age. In contrast, orientation processing was spared, possibly reflecting distinct age-related changes in its spatial channels. Lastly, a two-channel system was found to govern all second-order patterns in both age groups. Our findings reveal a neural signature of sensory aging: a deterioration in global integration for pattern processing and a specific vulnerability in motion-defined pattern processing, while orientation-defined pattern processing is maintained through distinct organizational changes. The present findings extend neural dedifferentiation frameworks in cognitive aging to the organization of spatial frequency channels in pattern vision.