Effects of sensory deprivation on cognitive degeneration: Evidence from ageing individuals with blindness

Cognitive functioning is based on sensory information. Both sensory deprivation and ageing cause cognitive deterioration. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of these two factors upon one another. The present study was cross sectional, comparing 137 blind and 124 normal vision participants using the Weschler memory scale (WMS-III), the mini mental state examination (MMSE) and the verbal fluency task (VFT). These scales measure cognitive abilities such as attention and calculation, auditory memory, working memory, associative learning, orientation, registration, attention, recall, language and phonemic and semantic verbal fluency. Findings indicated that normal vision participants performed significantly better in cognitive tasks compared to blind individuals. Both groups showed a similar pattern of decline in scores of cognitive ability with increase in age. Results suggested that sensory deprivation alone may not be considered as a detrimental factor in cognitive degeneration over the life span.