As the primary channel for acquiring information, visual function is fundamental to everyday activities, yet it changes markedly with aging and disease. Both normal aging and conditions affecting the eye or brain – including glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and cortical visual impairment alter key aspects of visual function, including contrast sensitivity, reading, visual search, motion perception, and eye movements. These visual changes extend beyond sensory processing, affecting higher-order cognitive functions and the strategies that support daily activities. Advances in neuroscience, psychophysics, and computational modeling now provide powerful tools to examine how the brain compensates for, or struggles with, declining visual input. Understanding these processes is critical for linking sensory decline with cognitive adaptation across the lifespan and in disease.

The aim of this Research Topic aims to advance understanding of how visual and cognitive systems adapt across the lifespan and in the presence of disease. Despite sensory decline, individuals show striking variability in their capacity to compensate through cognitive and neural mechanisms. Identifying the factors that promote resilience—such as cortical plasticity, attentional control, and behavioral strategies—can shed light on why some people maintain function while others experience greater disability. At the same time, visual impairments present unique challenges to visual learning and everyday tasks. By integrating approaches from behavioral research, neuroimaging, animal models, and computational science, this Research Topic seeks to promote a comprehensive perspective on adaptation. Ultimately, the goal is to inspire translational pathways for interventions and rehabilitation strategies that foster resilience and enhance quality of life for older adults and individuals with visual impairment.

We welcome contributions examining the interplay between aging, disease, and cognitive adaptation in visual function. Relevant themes include
- lifespan changes in visual learning and perception,
- the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support adaptation to impaired vision, and
- disease-related alterations in visual processing
- computational and deep learning approaches to modeling vision and adaptation are also encouraged.

Authors may submit original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, methods papers, and perspectives that provide new insights into how visual and cognitive systems interact in aging and disease.

The Topic Editor, Dr. Peter Bex, holds equity in PerZeption LLC, Adaptive Sensory Technology LLC, and Luminopia. The other Topic Editors report no competing interests in this Research Topic.

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Aging, Disease, and Cognitive Adaptation in Visual Function