Older age linked to less consistent eye movements
An observational study of 301 middle-aged and older participants linked less consistent eye movements to poorer face recognition.
Limit: The study did not measure whether face-recognition training delays cognitive aging
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Among 301 middle-aged and older participants, an observational study linked older age to less consistent eye movements when viewing faces. Lower consistency could partly account for the association between age and poorer face recognition. An eye movement pattern focused less on the eyes also predicted poorer recognition, alongside lower consistency.
Lower eye movement consistency was also associated with poorer selective attention—the ability to focus on relevant information—and inhibitory control, the ability to suppress unwanted responses. The authors suggested that declining consistency may reflect difficulty carrying out learned visual routines.
Why it matters
Face recognition is one aspect of cognitive aging. The authors suggested that training in face recognition and related visual strategies might offer ways to delay cognitive aging.
Caveats
These observational findings do not establish cause and effect or show that training would help. Results from middle-aged and older participants alone do not establish the suggested pattern across the full lifespan.
The paper
The Role of Eye Movement Consistency in Aging-Related Decline in Face Recognition
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
NPJ Science of Learning, Jul 10, 2026, Open access
