Motor asymmetry reduction in older adults

Abstract

While cerebral lateralization has previously been well documented for many neurobehavioral functions, recent research has shown that as people age, formerly lateralized processes recruit more symmetric patterns of neural activity. Such findings provide the foundation for the model of hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults, or “HAROLD” (Cabeza, 2002). Previous studies that have measured reaction time and movement time have suggested that aging does not affect manual asymmetries. However, whether these findings can be extended to kinematic variables associated with motor coordination remains largely unknown. The purpose of the current study is to determine whether asymmetries in intralimb coordination are also reduced during the aging process. We examined multidirectional reaching in two different right handed age groups, a younger group from 20 to 40 years of age, and an older group, from 60–80 years of age. Measures of final position accuracy, precision, and trajectory linearity showed robust asymmetries between the left and right arm groups of young adults. However, the trajectories and accuracies of the older subjects were symmetric, such that our dependent measures were not significantly different between the right and left arm groups. Our findings extend the HAROLD model to motor behavior, suggesting that aging results in decrements in motor lateralization.

Arm dominance affects feedforward strategy more than feedback sensitivity during a postural task

“…We included a broad population of subjects in this study, but some research suggests that young individuals display greater effects of lateralization as compared to older individuals (Cabeza 2002, Przybyla et al 2011b). To investigate this possibility, we repeated our analysis after excluding four subjects who were over 40 years of age.…”

Age-related differences in proprioceptive and visuo-proprioceptive function in relation to fine motor behaviour

“…We developed a validated (Muiños 2008) computerized test (Tous and Viadé 2002;Tous et al 2007) on the basis of myokinetic psychodiagnosis (MKP), a manual version of which was originally proposed by Mira (1958). The test equipment comprised a tactile screen (LGE, resolution 1,280 9 1,024, optimal frequency 60 Hz) and a sensory stylus (for hand drawings), both of which were connected to a laptop computer (Pentium IV) on which specially designed software was installed for data coding and analysis.…”

“…The winning performance of Senior Olympians ([50 years) declines approximately 3.4 % per year over 35 years of competition: slowly from age 50 to 75 years and then dramatically after age 75 years (Wright and Perricelli 2008). Furthermore, some researchers have shown decreased hand asymmetry (the performance difference between both hands) in motor tasks with ageing (Kalisch et al 2006;Przybyla et al 2011). Others have reported that the right hemisphere (left hand) worked faster on non-verbal and visual tasks, and found little change in this speed with age (Stern et al 1980).…”

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

“…Considerable data also exist for a left-hand proprioceptive advantage in right-handed young adults (Goble and Brown 2007. This is thought to reflect a non-preferred limb/hemisphere specialization in the ability to use proprioceptive feedback (Sainburg 2002;Goble et al 2006) which may be reduced in older adults (Przybyla et al 2011).…”