When I am (almost) 64: The effect of normal ageing on implicit motor imagery in young elderlies

Zapparoli, Laura; Saetta, Gianluca; Santis, Carlo De; Gandola, Martina; Zerbi, Alberto; Banfi, Giuseppe; Paulesu, Eraldo

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2016.01.058

Cited by 39 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…Our study also considered motor imagery across the lifespan. In terms of implicit tests of motor imagery, there was no obvious evidence that older adults were less accurate than young adults in the judgement of hand laterality, which is in line with previous findings that accuracy was comparable between a group of older adults and a group of young adults (Devlin & Wilson, 2010;Saimpont et al, 2009;Zapparoli et al, 2016). However, it is important to note that the lack of a difference in accuracy in all of these studies may be due to ceiling effects and if given a task which allowed a higher range of variability in the lower angles we may have seen absolute accuracy differences.…”

Section: Motor Imagery Across the Lifespansupporting

confidence: 89%

Constraints on motor planning across the life span: Physical, cognitive, and motor factors.

Wang¹,

Williams²,

Wilmut³

2020

Psychology and Aging

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Skilled adult movers plan for a comfortable end position even when this requires an uncomfortable start position (end-state-comfort effect). This ability declines in late adulthood and has been linked to age-related differences in cognitive functioning. Other factors, which may also drive difference in motor planning in later adulthood have not been systematically examined. These include perceptions of comfort and levels of motor imagery ability (one's ability to mentally simulate action / predict the outcome of action). Therefore, this study investigated the constraints on movement planning across the lifespan, including executive functions, general motor ability, physical constraints to movement and motor imagery ability.One hundred and twenty-two participants aged 20-81 years completed an end-state-comfort task with increasing levels of complexity. Individuals' executive functions, motor control, motor imagery ability and perceived rotation span were also examined. Age-related decline was shown in planning for sequential movements but not in simple single-step movements.Motor planning demonstrated an age-related difference which was associated with an increasing number of constraints as age increased, and in older adults chronological age influenced the effect of each constraint on motor planning. Age-related difference in motor planning may reflect effective compensatory strategies in response to differing constraints in motor imagery ability, executive functions, perceived rotation span and general speed and accuracy of movement as we age.

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Section: Motor Imagery Across the Lifespansupporting

confidence: 89%

Constraints on motor planning across the life span: Physical, cognitive, and motor factors.

Wang¹,

Williams²,

Wilmut³

2020

Psychology and Aging

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“…Consistent with this interpretation, clinical data show that parietal white‐matter lesions correlate with impaired mobility [Benson et al, ; Moscufo et al, ]. The “active” contribution of the posterior multisensory regions might be particularly relevant in the elderly [Zwergal et al, ] to scaffold motor performance and cope with age‐related sensory system decline (for similar interpretations in different contexts, see Heuninckx et al [], Venkatraman et al [], and Zapparoli et al []).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Mental steps: Differential activation of internal pacemakers in motor imagery and in mental imitation of gait

Sacheli

Zapparoli

Santis

et al. 2017

Human Brain Mapping

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Gait imagery and gait observation can boost the recovery of locomotion dysfunctions; yet, a neurologically justified rationale for their clinical application is lacking as much as a direct comparison of their neural correlates. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured the neural correlates of explicit motor imagery of gait during observation of in-motion videos shot in a park with a steady cam (Virtual Walking task). In a 2 × 2 factorial design, we assessed the modulatory effect of gait observation and of foot movement execution on the neural correlates of the Virtual Walking task: in half of the trials, the participants were asked to mentally imitate a human model shown while walking along the same route (mental imitation condition); moreover, for half of all the trials, the participants also performed rhythmic ankle dorsiflexion as a proxy for stepping movements. We found that, beyond the areas associated with the execution of lower limb movements (the paracentral lobule, the supplementary motor area, and the cerebellum), gait imagery also recruited dorsal premotor and posterior parietal areas known to contribute to the adaptation of walking patterns to environmental cues. When compared with mental imitation, motor imagery recruited a more extensive network, including a brainstem area compatible with the human mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR). Reduced activation of the MLR in mental imitation indicates that this more visually guided task poses less demand on subcortical structures crucial for internally generated gait patterns. This finding may explain why patients with subcortical degeneration benefit from rehabilitation protocols based on gait observation. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5195-5216, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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“…The enhanced connectivity to a region that is specifically more active in GTS patients during a motor task suggests that this hyperactivation might be compensatory in nature, in response to multiple inputs according to task demands and the natural tendency of patients with GTS to generate tics: the superior frontal gyrus, with its hyperactivation during the motor task and enhanced incoming endogenous connectivity, might be one of the gatekeepers that maintain the tendency to tic and its competition with controlled motor behaviour at bay (for a discussion about compensatory processes associated with other domains see, e.g. Berlingeri et al ., ; Zapparoli et al ., 2016b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A tug of war: antagonistic effective connectivity patterns over the motor cortex and the severity of motor symptoms in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome

Zapparoli

Tettamanti

Porta

et al. 2017

Eur J of Neuroscience

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We tested the hypothesis that Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is characterized by perturbed connectivity within cortico-subcortical motor networks. To this end, we performed a dynamic causal modelling (DCM) analysis of fMRI data collected during a finger opposition task in 24 normal controls and 24 GTS patients. The DCM analysis allowed us to assess whether any GTS-specific patterns of brain activity were related to intrinsic and/or to task-dependent connectivity. While no abnormalities were found for task-dependent connectivity, intrinsic connectivity was abnormally increased in the premotor network, with stronger connections from the supplementary motor area (SMA), from the dorsolateral premotor cortex and from the putamen to the right superior frontal gyrus, an area where GTS showed over-activation in a previous univariate analysis. We also found a positive correlation between the connectivity strength from the right basal ganglia to the right primary motor cortex (M1) and disease severity measured by the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS). This pattern was mirrored by a negative correlation between the connection strength from the right SMA to the right area M1 and the YGTSS score. These two reverse correlation effects showed a specific relationship with individual disease severity: the greater the imbalance between subcortical and premotor connectivity towards area M1, the higher the YGTSS score. These results reveal the existence of perturbed intrinsic connectivity patterns in the motor networks of GTS patients with two competing forces operating in a tug of war-like mechanism: aberrant subcortical afferents to M1, compensated for by inputs from the premotor cortex.

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When I am (almost) 64: The effect of normal ageing on implicit motor imagery in young elderlies

Cited by 39 publications

References 95 publications

Constraints on motor planning across the life span: Physical, cognitive, and motor factors.

Constraints on motor planning across the life span: Physical, cognitive, and motor factors.

Mental steps: Differential activation of internal pacemakers in motor imagery and in mental imitation of gait

A tug of war: antagonistic effective connectivity patterns over the motor cortex and the severity of motor symptoms in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome

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