The Decline of Cortical Beta Oscillation on the Function of Eye-hand Coordination in the Healthy Elderly

There seems to be a correlation between changes in movement patterns with aging and brain activation. In the preparation and execution of movements, neural oscillations play an important role. In this study, cortical high frequency brain oscillations were analyzed in 15 healthy young adults and 15 elderly adults who participated in eye-hand coordination tasks.

The brain activities of healthy young and older adults were recorded using electroencephalography (EEG).

Elderly participants spent significantly more time completing the task than young participants. During eye-hand coordination in elderly groups, beta power decreased significantly in the central midline and parietal brain regions. The data suggest that healthy elderly subjects had intact cognitive performance, but relatively poor eye-hand coordination associated with loss of beta brain oscillation in the central midline and parietal cortex and reduced ability to attentional movement.

Beta frequency in the parietal brain sites may contribute to attentional movement. This could be an important method for monitoring cognitive brain function changes as the brain ages.