Healthy mind in healthy body? A review of sensorimotor–cognitive interdependencies in old age

Abstract

We review four broad lines of research on couplings between sensorimotor and cognitive aging, with an emphasis on methodological concerns. First, correlational cross-sectional and longitudinal data indicate increasing associations between sensorimotor and cognitive aspects of behavior with advancing age. Second, older adults show greater performance decrements than young adults when sensorimotor and cognitive tasks or task components need to be performed concurrently rather than in isolation. Third, aerobic fitness interventions produce positive transfer effects on cognition that are particularly pronounced for tasks with high demands on attention and executive control. Fourth, neuroscience findings from animal models and humans have identified aging-sensitive structural and functional circuitries that support cognitive functions and are enhanced by higher levels of sensorimotor functioning. We conclude that sensorimotor and cognitive aging are causally related and functionally interdependent and that age-associated increments in cognitive resource demands of sensorimotor functioning are malleable by experience.Keywords Cognitive aging . Motor aging . Brain aging . Aerobic fitness . Sensorimotor-cognitive couplings Normal aging is associated with losses in the functional integrity of sensory, sensorimotor, and cognitive domains. Each of these losses has been studied extensively at behavioral and physiological levels of analysis. However, considerably less attention has been paid to the question whether senescent changes are causally shared and functionally coupled across domains [53]. In this review, we present causal and functional couplings between sensorimotor and cognitive aging. We report evidence from correlational studies, dual-task experiments, aerobic fitness interventions, and select neuroscience work in animals and humans, and we also discuss methodological issues that should be considered when conducting this kind of research. Findings from all of these disparate lines of research converge on the notion that sensorimotor and cognitive aging form an intricate link and are malleable by experience.Adult age differences in correlations among sensorimotor, sensory, and cognitive performance Aging is associated with decrements in cognitive and sensorimotor functioning [51,68]. In addition, several correlational studies have reported an increase in the association between sensory, sensorimotor, and cognitive functions from early adulthood to old age [2,3,9,53]. On the sensory and sensorimotor side, measures included visual acuity, auditory acuity, grip strength, strength in the lower limbs, and forced expiratory volume; one study also included the tactile modality [48]. Using hierarchical linear regression, Baltes and Lindenberger [9] assessed the proportion of shared variance between sensory functioning, operationalized as visual and auditory acuity, and intelliEur Rev Aging Phys Act (2006) 3:45-54

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The Center of Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development: Conceptual Agenda and Illustration of Research Activities

“…First, there is the need to integrate theorizing and research practice across functional domains to attain a comprehensive picture of individual development. For instance, sensorimotor and cognitive functioning are more interdependent in early childhood and old age than during middle portions of the lifespan, and developmental changes in either domain are better understood if studied in conjunction (Schaefer, Huxhold, & Lindenberger, 2006). Similar observations can be made for many other domains of functioning whose changes generally have been studied in isolation, such as the ontogeny of social interaction and cognition, or of emotion regulation and motivational states.…”