Age-related differences in movement representation

Repetitive movements have been used as motor activation tasks in the investigation of various neurological disorders. To determine the importance of an age-matched control group in such studies we investigated whether there are significant age-related changes in the pattern of cortical activation seen during simple repetitive movements. Sixteen right-handed healthy subjects were studied-8 young and 8 old. Functional magnetic resonance images were acquired while subjects performed a motor task or a nonmovement rest condition. Two continuous motor tasks, index finger abduction/adduction and wrist extension/flexion, were performed by each hand, paced using a metronome. The fMRI data were processed and analyzed with SPM '99. For the between-group comparisons, for each motor task, contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex and premotor cortex had significantly greater activation in the Young group and caudal supplementary motor area had significantly greater activation in the Old group. Ipsilateral sensorimotor cortex was more significantly activated in the Old group for index finger motor tasks of both hands. All noted differences in the Old group were more prominent for the index finger movement and most prominent when using the nondominant hand. In conclusion, there are significant age-related differences in the activation pattern associated with repetitive movements. This may represent compensatory recruitment of motor cortical units in the older subjects as larger differences are noted in the older group during the more difficult motor tasks, those of isolated finger movement and nondominant hand use. This study has important implications for functional imaging experiments of neurological disorders in older subjects.