The aging brain: Movement speed and spatial control

Lamb, Damon G.; Correa, Lauren N.; Seider, Talia R.; Mosquera, Diana M.; Rodríguez, J.A. Virseda; Salazar, Liliana; Schwartz, Zared J.; Cohen, Ronald A.; Falchook, Aaron D.; Heilman, Kenneth M.

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2016.07.009

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Bradykinesia is characteristic in a spectrum of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, but is also a hallmark of normal aging. Nonetheless, slowness associated with impaired accuracy more likely represents a pathological condition [ 42 ], such as MHE, where ammonia and other endogenous substances (resulting from an impaired hepatic metabolism) affect brain structure and functionality [ 43 ], causing a bradykinetic pattern like in Parkinson’s disease [ 44 ]. These findings support the results of other studies related to the slowness and inaccuracy demonstrated through the Line Tracing Test and Continuous Reaction Time Test [ 40 , 45 ], and raises the alteration of motor control in patients with MHE prior to physical frailty.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motor and Cognitive Performance in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis with Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy

Valenzuela

Borras-Barrachina

Gallego

et al. 2020

JCM

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Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is associated with mild cognitive impairment and frailty. This study aims to identify cognitive and motor differences in cirrhotic patients with and without MHE, and the correlations between motor signs and cognitive performance. Gait, balance, hand strength and motor speed performance were evaluated in 66 cirrhotic patients (38 without and 28 with MHE, according to the Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES). Cognitive performance was measured with the Mini-Mental State Examination, Verbal Fluency Test, Aprendizaje Verbal España-Complutense Test (TAVEC), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III, Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Rating Scale and Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST). MHE patients performed worse than patients without MHE in cognitive and autonomous functioning, learning and long-term memory, and verbal fluency. The same pattern was found in gait, center of pressure movement, variability of hand strength performance and hand motor speed. In MHE patients, high correlations were found between balance and FAST test, gait velocity and verbal skills, hand strength variability and anxiety and depression, and motor speed and FAST and TAVEC. MHE patients showed worse motor and cognitive performance than patients without MHE. MHE patients could have impaired movement control expressed as bradykinesia, and this reduced motor performance could correlate with cognitive performance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motor and Cognitive Performance in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis with Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy

Valenzuela

Borras-Barrachina

Gallego

et al. 2020

JCM

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“…Indeed, this aspect of performance was notably different from young children. Concurrent with Lamb et al (2016), who had participants make alternating pen marks between a card located at the midline and a number of empty circles on a page, older adults were slower, but more accurate, compared to young adults. Related work with this age group has noted a tendency to sacrifice speed in order to ensure accuracy (Seidler et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Efficacy of the Hand Selection Complexity Task Across the Lifespan

2019

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There is inconsistent evidence demonstrating a relationship between task complexity and hand preference. However, analyzing the point at which task complexity overrides the decision to demonstrate a biomechanically efficient movement can enable complexity to be quantified. Young children (ages 3–7), adolescents (ages 8–12), young adults (ages 18–25), and older adults (ages 65+) performed a newly developed Hand Selection Complexity Task (HSCT) and completed the Waterloo Handedness Questionnaire (WHQ). The HSCT included a reciprocal Fitts’ tapping task performed in the contralateral space (i.e., same side as preferred hand), followed by ipsilateral space (i.e., opposite side of preferred hand). An alternating contralateral-ipsilateral pattern enabled the participant to progress through six levels of difficulty in three conditions (manipulating target amplitude, width, and combined factors). As participants were free to perform with whichever hand (i.e., preferred, non-preferred) they deemed most appropriate, the level of difficulty where a hand switch occurred was identified. HSCT completion time and error scores were also computed. Findings revealed age to be a significant predictor of dependent measures when considering significant effects and interactions. Combined with the covariate WHQ score as a significant predictor of HSCT time and errors (in some, but not all cases), it can be argued that age-related effects reflect the development of handedness, and changes in strength of handedness across the lifespan. Together, findings suggest that task complexity plays an important role in hand selection when performing a task of increasing difficulty. It appears that task complexity will take precedent over object proximity and biomechanical efficiency, at a certain point, in order to complete the movement with the preferred hand. This point ultimately changes throughout the lifespan.

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“…Rather, the greater accuracy of older individuals could be due to a shift in speed-accuracy tradeoff (Lamb et al, 2016): older subjects might have favored accuracy over speed. That is, they might have responded more carefully, slowing down their responses to cope better with conflict, as already proposed in the past (Wild-Wall et al, 2008; Verhaeghen, 2011; Hsieh and Fang, 2012; Hsieh et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Aging on Motor Inhibition during Action Preparation under Sensory Conflict

Duqué

Petitjean

Swinnen

2016

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Motor behaviors often require refraining from selecting options that may be part of the repertoire of natural response tendencies but that are in conflict with ongoing goals. The presence of sensory conflict has a behavioral cost but the latter can be attenuated in contexts where control processes are recruited because conflict is expected in advance, producing a behavioral gain compared to contexts where conflict occurs in a less predictable way. In the present study, we investigated the corticospinal correlates of these behavioral effects (both conflict-driven cost and context-related gain). To do so, we measured motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) of young and healthy older adults performing the Eriksen Flanker Task. Subjects performed button-presses according to a central arrow, flanked by irrelevant arrows pointing in the same (congruent trial) or opposite direction (incongruent trial). Conflict expectation was manipulated by changing the probability of congruent and incongruent trials in a given block. It was either high (mostly incongruent blocks, MIB, 80% incongruent trials) or low (mostly congruent blocks, MCB, 80% congruent). The MEP data indicate that the conflict-driven behavioral cost is associated with a strong increase in inappropriate motor activity regardless of the age of individuals, as revealed by larger MEPs in the non-responding muscle in incongruent than in congruent trials. However, this aberrant facilitation disappeared in both groups of subjects when conflict could be anticipated (i.e., in the MIBs) compared to when it occurred in a less predictably way (MCBs), probably allowing the behavioral gain observed in both the young and the older individuals. Hence, the ability to overcome and anticipate conflict was surprisingly preserved in the older adults. Nevertheless, some control processes are likely to evolve with age because the behavioral gain observed in the MIB context was associated with an attenuated suppression of MEPs at the time of the imperative signal (i.e., before conflict is actually detected) in older individuals, suggesting altered motor inhibition, compared to young individuals. In addition, the behavioral analysis suggests that young and older adults rely on different strategies to cope with conflict, including a change in speed-accuracy tradeoff.

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The aging brain: Movement speed and spatial control

Abstract: During this aiming task, healthy older adults were less likely than younger adults to sacrifice accuracy for speed. Thus, at least in part, their slowing may be a learned adaptive strategy.

Cited by 19 publications

References 44 publications

Motor and Cognitive Performance in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis with Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy

Motor and Cognitive Performance in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis with Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy

Investigating the Efficacy of the Hand Selection Complexity Task Across the Lifespan

Effect of Aging on Motor Inhibition during Action Preparation under Sensory Conflict

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