Effect of age on human-computer-interface control via neck electromyography

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of age on visuomotor tracking using submental and anterior neck surface electromyography (sEMG) to assess feasibility of computer control via neck musculature, which allows people with little remaining motor function to interact with computers. Thirty-two healthy adults participated: sixteen younger adults aged 18 - 29 years and sixteen older adults aged 69 - 85 years. Participants modulated sEMG to achieve targets presented at different amplitudes using real-time visual feedback. Root-mean-squared (RMS) error was used to quantify tracking performance. RMS error was increased for older adults relative to younger adults. Older adults demonstrated more RMS error than younger adults as a function of increasing target amplitude. The differential effects of age found on static tracking performance in anterior neck musculature suggest more difficult translation of human-computer-interfaces controlled using anterior neck musculature for static tasks to older populations.