Movement sequencing in normal aging: speech, oro-facial, and finger movements

Abstract

The manner and extent to which normal aging affects the ability to speak are not fully understood. While age-related changes in voice fundamental frequency and intensity have been documented, changes affecting the planning and articulation of speech are less well understood. In the present study, 76 healthy, cognitively normal participants aged between 18 and 93 years old were asked to produce auditorily and visually triggered sequences of finely controlled movements (speech, oro-facial, and manual movement). These sequences of movements were either (1) simple, in which at least two of the three movements were the same, or (2) complex, in which three different movements were produced. For each of the resulting experimental condition, accuracy was calculated. The results show that, for speech and oro-facial movements, accuracy declined as a function of age and complexity. For these movements, the negative effect of complexity on performance accuracy increased with age. No aging or complexity effects were found for the manual movements on accuracy, but a significant slowing of movement was found, particularly for the complex sequences. These results demonstrate that there is a significant deterioration of fine motor control in normal aging across different response modalities.

Age differences in the motor control of speech: An fMRI study of healthy aging

“…The average difference in MT between younger and older adults was 18%, and it reached 24% in the most complex condition (high sequential and high motor complexity) (CC). In a recent study, we found that MT increased in older compared to younger adults in a simple sequential finger movement task, while response accuracy was stable [Bilodeau-Mercure et al, 2015a]. The finding of an age difference in speech motor control is consistent with previous studies focusing on the production of syllables, nonwords and sentences, which have shown longer MT for older compared to younger adults [Bilodeau-Mercure and Tremblay, in press;Sadagopan and Smith, 2013].…”

“…Based on recent studies [Bilodeau-Mercure et al, 2015a;Bilodeau-Mercure and Tremblay, in press;Sadagopan and Smith, 2013], our general hypothesis was that the performance of older adults during sequential speech production would be lower than that of young adults, particularly at high complexity levels. Based on recent studies [Bilodeau-Mercure et al, 2015a;Bilodeau-Mercure and Tremblay, in press;Sadagopan and Smith, 2013], our general hypothesis was that the performance of older adults during sequential speech production would be lower than that of young adults, particularly at high complexity levels.…”

“…The general objective of the present study was to extend current understanding of the aging of the neuromotor control of speech by examining age differences in brain activation patterns during a sequential speech production task in relation to behavioral data. Based on recent studies [Bilodeau-Mercure et al, 2015a;Bilodeau-Mercure and Tremblay, in press;Sadagopan and Smith, 2013], our general hypothesis was that the performance of older adults during sequential speech production would be lower than that of young adults, particularly at high complexity levels. Furthermore, we also hypothesized that age differences would be associated with Coordinates are in MNI space and represent the peak surface node for each of the cluster (FWE: P 5 0.05, minimum cluster size: 95 contiguous surface nodes, each significant at P < 0.01).…”

“…Previous studies have documented a number of age-related differences in various aspects of spoken language production including changes in voice production affecting the fundamental frequency (pitch) of the voice [Decoster and Debruyne, 1997;Honjo and Isshiki, 1980;Hunter et al, 2012;Linville, 1996;Mueller, 1997;Ramig, 1983], as well as, the stability [Lortie et al, 2016[Lortie et al, , 2015Wilcox and Horii, 1980] and loudness of voice [Baker et al, 2001]. Other studies have reported age-related differences in articulation and prosody, including a decrease in speech rate [Duchin and Mysak, 1987;Fozo and Watson, 1998;Searl et al, 2002;Wohlert and Smith, 1998], an increase in the duration of individual speech sounds and syllables during the repetition of words or sentences [Morris and Brown, 1987;Ryan and Burk, 1974;Smith et al, 1987], as well as a decrease in accuracy during the production of complex nonwords and non-speech oro-facial movements [Bilodeau-Mercure et al, 2015a;Sadagopan and Smith, 2013]. Interestingly, a study from our group recently demonstrated that age differences in speech motor accuracy (but not speed) are only partly mediated by a decline in the endurance of the lips and not at all related to lip and tongue force or tactile sensitivity [Bilodeau-Mercure and Tremblay, in press].…”

Age Differences in Sequential Speech Production: Articulatory and Physiological Factors

“…Age-related decline in accuracy was shown for the production of long but not short nonwords 4 and for the production of complex but not simple syllable sequences. 9 It is also possible that certain speech sounds are particularly vulnerable to aging, although to the knowledge of the authors of the current study, no study has compared age differences in the production of specific speech sounds.…”