Age-related slowing down in the motor initiation in elderly adults

Abstract

Age-related changes in the human brain functioning crucially affect the motor system, causing increased reaction time, low ability to control and execute movements, difficulties in learning new motor skills. The lifestyle and lowered daily activity of elderly adults, along with the deficit of motor and cognitive brain functions, might lead to the developed ambidexterity, i.e., the loss of dominant limb advances. Despite the broad knowledge about the changes in cortical activity directly related to the motor execution, less is known about age-related differences in the motor initiation phase. We hypothesize that the latter strongly influences the behavioral characteristics, such as reaction time, the accuracy of motor performance, etc. Here, we compare the neuronal processes underlying the motor initiation phase preceding fine motor task execution between elderly and young subjects. Based on the results of the whole-scalp sensor-level electroencephalography (EEG) analysis, we demonstrate that the age-related slowing down in the motor initiation before the dominant hand movements is accompanied by the increased theta activation within sensorimotor area and reconfiguration of the theta-band functional connectivity in elderly adults.

Age-Related Distinctions in EEG Signals during Execution of Motor Tasks Characterized in Terms of Long-Range Correlations

“…The phenomenon of degradation of the neural response associated with motor activity for healthy aging is known and serves as the background for this research. In addition, our recent studies [47,52] established a reliable increase in the complexity of EEG signals in the elderly subjects and showed a linear correlation between complexity and age. This circumstance is explained by the degeneration of weak neuronal plasticity under the factor of age.…”

“…The type of movement depended on the duration of the signal: a short beep (0.3 s) was used for non-dominant hand (left hand, LH) movements, and a longer audio signal (0.75 s) was applied for dominant hand (right hand, RH) movements. In contrast with a widely applied visual-pacing of motor actions [46], audio commands induce greater cortical activation related with much more pronounced launching of perception-action loops associated with sensorimotor integration and affected by healthy aging [47,48]. The order of tasks (left of right hand) was chosen randomly to avoid training effects.…”

A BCI-Based Vibrotactile Neurofeedback Training Improves Motor Cortical Excitability During Motor Imagery

“…Secondly, the age of the subjects does not allow extrapolation of the results to the elderly people, who constitute the majority among people for whom BCI can be helpful in restoring motor function. It is well known that motor acts in elderly subjects have a number of features of sensorimotor integration [75][76][77][78], which will undoubtedly affect the result and effectiveness of neurofeedback in this case. The study of how a BCI-based vibrotactile neurofeedback training can influence the motor cortical excitability of elderly persons and stroke patients may be a subject for future research.…”

Effective Connectivity for Decoding Electroencephalographic Motor Imagery Using a Probabilistic Neural Network

“…These are the most suitable electrodes for the feasible implementation of MI-based BCI using multiple brain regions with a reduced number of electrode channels. Moreover, these channels have been endorsed by several researchers in their work [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]. The channels chosen for the BCI application are shown in Figure 2 .…”