The role of cognitive load on interlimb differences in motor coordination in older adults

Although the dominant hand has been shown to have performance advantages over the nondominant hand, these interlimb differences have found to be dependent on task and biomechanical demands. The dynamic dominance hypothesis suggests that the left hemisphere is specialized for the control of intersegmental dynamics while the nondominant right hemisphere is specialized for postural control, in right-handers. In a real-world scenario, however, cognitive challenges might be expected to modulate these specialized behaviors. Therefore, we hypothesized that with increased cognitive load, lateralized motor control processes would become even more asymmetrical. We recruited 16 right-handed older adults (11 females, 5 males; 65.88 yr ± 1.99 SE) to perform 170 trials of a unilateral reaching task with each of their hands on the Kinereach system. In each trial, participants rapidly memorized pictorial instructions before identifying and reaching for the correct object on a screen. The complexity of the task increased over the course of the experiment. Our results demonstrated higher reaction times in the right than in the left hand (P = 0.0004). Movements became increasingly curved and erroneous with cognitive load, but interlimb differences in movement quality were absent. We found higher joint cocontraction in the right than in the left arm (P < 0.05), but these differences were unaffected by cognitive load. Hence, with the addition of a cognitive load, we observed asymmetries in reaction time but not in joint coordination or movement quality. This highlights the role of cognitive load in modulating limb/hemisphere specializations for control processes.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Although we know that motor control processes are lateralized to each hemisphere, the role of cognitive load on these specialized processes is undefined. We designed a unique task that incorporates a cognitive challenge to a typical reaching movement to examine how cognitive load affects limb asymmetries in motor control. In a group of typical older adults, we demonstrated interlimb asymmetries in reaction time but not in joint coordination or movement quality.