Age-Related Differences in Upper Limb Proprioceptive Acuity

Abstract

Although upper limb movements are known to be slower and more variable in elderly persons, the extent to which these changes are associated with deficits in movement-related sensory feedback is poorly understood, despite the importance of proprioception in the control of skilled movement. Age-related changes were examined with 22 participants (10 of M age 27 years and 12 of M age 75 years) in performance of an elbow position-matching task which varied in terms of interhemispheric transfer and/or the need to retrieve memory-based proprioceptive information. Matching errors were significantly greater, and movements more prolonged, and irregular in their time course in the elderly group than in the young group. Impaired performance in conditions requiring interhemispheric transfer and retrieval of memory-based proprioceptive information reflected the importance of cognitive processing during complex sensorimotor tasks. This novel matching paradigm provided a sensitive means of manipulating the demands of the task and may be an effective method for as sessing both cognitive and sensorimotor declines associated with aging.

Proprioceptively guided reaching movements in 3D space: effects of age, task complexity and handedness

“…In contrast to the ipsilateral matching condition, the magnitudes of matching errors were greater in older compared with young adults. Our findings are corroborated by other investigations of agerelated differences in proprioceptive ability between young and older individuals (Adamo et al 2007(Adamo et al , 2009Herter et al 2014). These results may be explained by deterioration of cognitive processes involved in sensorimotor function (Li and Lindenberger 2002) and reduced hemispheric connectivity caused by corpus callosum degeneration (Abe et al 2002).…”

“…These findings contrast with those reported by Adamo et al (2007Adamo et al ( , 2009, who found that older adults had significantly greater matching errors when replicating joint angles with the same and opposite arms. Methodological differences may account for conflicting findings, since Adamo et al (2007Adamo et al ( , 2009) conducted single-joint position matching tasks in a gravity-eliminated environment. In the present study, we used a multi-joint position matching task which allowed gravitational forces to influence arm movements.…”

“…Furthermore, age-related changes in proprioceptor function are known to increase the amount of spontaneous, unwanted neuronal activity (i.e., noise) in sensory feedback (Shaffer and Harrison 2007). This has been suggested as a factor that could influence the magnitude of errors in single-joint studies of elderly upper limb proprioceptive function (Adamo et al 2007(Adamo et al , 2009). There is evidence that the central nervous system encodes limb endpoint positions by integrating sensory feedback from combinations of joint segments (Helms Tillery et al 1996, Bosco et al 2000.…”

“…Similarly, Lovelace and Aikens (1990) found that the accuracy of a remembered pointing task was similar between young and older adults. However, proprioceptive deficits about the elbow (Adamo et al 2007) and wrist (Adamo et al 2009;Wright et al 2011) have been reported in elderly individuals, especially for tasks requiring interhemispheric transfer of proprioceptive information. More recently, Langan (2014) found that upper limb proprioceptive accuracy decreased when older adults performed self-guided reaching movements with extrinsic sensory feedback.…”

Analyzing motoric and physiological data in describing upper extremity movement in the aged

“…In [29], the slowing of fine motor performances in aging was quantified using timing measures during hand-related tasks. Other works were based on identifying the effect of aging on the grip force for holding and moving object [12], coordinated eye and hand movements [31], proprioceptive acuity [2], and activation of shoulder muscles during dynamic activities [11] involving pull, push, elevation, and throw. However, preparation of upper extremity movement is an important component that needs to be addressed.…”