Differential effects of age on sequence learning and sensorimotor adaptation.

Full Abstract

Although many studies have documented declines in the ability of the elderly to learn new manual motor skills, studies have not directly compared the capacity of older adults to learn sequences versus adapt to sensorimotor perturbations within the context of the same task paradigm, despite differences in the underlying neural mechanisms and strategic processes supporting the two types of learning. The purpose of the current study was to exploit these task differences in an effort to determine whether aging results in a generalized or more specific skill learning deficit. Groups of young and older adult subjects learned to make a sequence of actions, adapted to one of two visuomotor rotations, or adapted to an altered gain of display, all while performing the same basic manual joystick aiming task. While the older adults exhibited normal sequence learning in comparison to the young adults, they exhibited impairments in all three of the adaptation tasks. These deficits in adaptation for the older adults were associated with hypometric movements and reduced velocity modulation in comparison to that seen in the younger adults. These data suggest that older adults may have greater difficulty with learning cerebellar-mediated motor skills.

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Author information

Author/s: Seidler, Rachael D (RD);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, MI 48109-2214, USA. rseidler(-atsign-)umich.edu

Grants: AG08808 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; AG20883 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; AG24106 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Brain research bulletin (Brain Res Bull), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Oct; vol 70 (issue 4-6) : pp 337-46

Dates: Created 2006/10/09; Completed 2006/12/05; Revised 2007/12/03;

PMID: 17027769, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acclimatization
Adult
Aged
Aging - physiology
Analysis of Variance
Biomechanics
Feedback - physiology
Female

Humans
Male
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Rotation
Serial Learning - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology

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