Mitigating age-related stereo decline with perceptual training

Aging is accompanied by visual decline, largely driven by central rather than peripheral changes. Encouragingly, however, the aging brain is neuroplastic. Here, we used perceptual learning to improve stereoscopic depth perception in older and younger observers, comparing their learning capacity and transferability across two depth tasks: signal-in-noise and fine discrimination. Ninety participants (45 younger and 45 older) were randomly assigned to train on one of the tasks or to a no-training control. All participants completed pre- and post-tests on both tasks, with training groups receiving training over three consecutive days. Despite lower baseline performance, older adults exhibited learning rates and magnitudes comparable to those of younger adults. In both age groups, fine discrimination training improved performance on both tasks, whereas signal-in-noise training yielded task-specific gains. Our findings demonstrate that the human binocular visual system retains substantial plasticity that is governed by mechanisms that remain effective with age.