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Aging differentially affects online control and offline control in finger force production
Yang Sun Park1,2, Kyung Koh2,3, Hyun Joon Kwon3,4
1The Department of Physical Education, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Plos One
|June 1, 2018
Summary
Aging impairs the central nervous system's (CNS) ability to manage complex motor tasks. Elderly individuals show deficits in online virtual finger control and offline individual finger control when facing conflicting task demands.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Aging Research
Background:
- The aging human central nervous system (CNS) experiences neurological changes affecting motor functions.
- The CNS independently controls multi-finger force and moment of force.
- Simultaneous control of force and moment creates a 'conflict of interest' (COI) for the CNS.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how aging impacts the CNS's capacity to resolve COI in motor tasks.
- To compare motor control strategies between elderly and young subjects under COI and no COI conditions.
Main Methods:
- A novel experimental paradigm was developed to assess COI resolution.
- Participants (elderly and young) performed a constant force production task with index and middle fingers.
- Two conditions were tested: multi-finger pressing with no COI and with COI.
Main Results:
- Elderly subjects exhibited increased variance in virtual finger (VF) control on a moment-to-moment basis (online control) under COI.
- Elderly subjects showed increased covariance between individual finger (IF) forces on a trial-to-trial basis (offline control) under COI.
- Compared to young subjects, elderly individuals demonstrated poorer VF online control and IF offline control when COI was present.
Conclusions:
- Aging deteriorates the CNS's ability to solve COI in motor tasks.
- Specific deficits in aging include impaired online control of virtual finger actions and offline control of individual finger actions.
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