Age-related Decline of Online Visuomotor Adaptation: a Combined Effect of Deteriorations of Motor Anticipation and Execution

Overview

Journal Front Aging Neurosci

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2023 Jul 6

PMID 37409009

Authors

Na Li

Junsheng Liu

Yong Xie

Weidong Ji

Zhongting Chen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The literature has established that the capability of visuomotor adaptation decreases with aging. However, the underlying mechanisms of this decline are yet to be fully understood. The current study addressed this issue by examining how aging affected visuomotor adaptation in a continuous manual tracking task with delayed visual feedback. To distinguish separate contributions of the declined capability of motor anticipation and deterioration of motor execution to this age-related decline, we recorded and analyzed participants' manual tracking performances and their eye movements during tracking. Twenty-nine older people and twenty-three young adults (control group) participated in this experiment. The results showed that the age-related decline of visuomotor adaptation was strongly linked to degraded performance in predictive pursuit eye movement, indicating that declined capability motor anticipation with aging had critical influences on the age-related decline of visuomotor adaptation. Additionally, deterioration of motor execution, measured by random error after controlling for the lag between target and cursor, was found to have an independent contribution to the decline of visuomotor adaptation. Taking these findings together, we see a picture that the age-related decline of visuomotor adaptation is a joint effect of the declined capability of motor anticipation and the deterioration of motor execution with aging.

Citing Articles

VR Cognitive-based Intervention for Enhancing Cognitive Functions and Well-being in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment: Behavioral and EEG Evidence.

Makmee P, Wongupparaj P Psychosoc Interv. 2025; 34(1):37-51.

PMID: 39781014 PMC: 11705435. DOI: 10.5093/pi2025a4.

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