Age-related differentiation of sensorimotor control strategies during pursuit and compensatory tracking. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2014;2014:3562-5
Date
01/09/2015Pubmed ID
25570760Pubmed Central ID
PMC4747107DOI
10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944392Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84929485111 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 1 CitationAbstract
Motor control deficits during aging have been well-documented. Various causes of neuromotor decline, including both peripheral and central neurological deficits, have been hypothesized. Here, we use a model of closed-loop sensorimotor control to examine the functional causes of motor control deficits during aging. We recruited 14 subjects aged 19-61 years old to participate in a study in which they performed single-joint compensatory and pursuit tracking tasks with their dominant hand. We found that visual response delay and visual noise increased with age, while reliance on visual feedback, especially during compensatory tracking decreased. Increases in visual noise were also positively correlated with increases in movement error during a reach and hold task. The results suggest an increase in noise within the visuomotor control system may contribute to the decline in motor performance during early aging.
Author List
Heenan M, Scheidt RA, Beardsley SAAuthors
Scott Beardsley PhD Associate Professor in the Biomedical Engineering department at Marquette UniversityRobert Scheidt BS,MS,PhD Associate Professor in the Biomedical Engineering department at Marquette University
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultAging
Elbow
Feedback, Sensory
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Movement
Psychomotor Performance
Sensorimotor Cortex
Young Adult
