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Motor control and aging: links to age-related brain structural, functional, and biochemical effects.Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Apr 2010Although connections between cognitive deficits and age-associated brain differences have been elucidated, relationships with motor performance are less well understood.... (Review)
Review
Although connections between cognitive deficits and age-associated brain differences have been elucidated, relationships with motor performance are less well understood. Here, we broadly review age-related brain differences and motor deficits in older adults in addition to cognition-action theories. Age-related atrophy of the motor cortical regions and corpus callosum may precipitate or coincide with motor declines such as balance and gait deficits, coordination deficits, and movement slowing. Correspondingly, degeneration of neurotransmitter systems-primarily the dopaminergic system-may contribute to age-related gross and fine motor declines, as well as to higher cognitive deficits. In general, older adults exhibit involvement of more widespread brain regions for motor control than young adults, particularly the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia networks. Unfortunately these same regions are the most vulnerable to age-related effects, resulting in an imbalance of "supply and demand". Existing exercise, pharmaceutical, and motor training interventions may ameliorate motor deficits in older adults.
Topics: Aging; Animals; Brain; Humans; Models, Neurological; Motor Skills; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 19850077
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.10.005 -
ENeuro 2022The human sensorimotor system is sensitive to both limb-related prediction errors and task-related performance errors. Prediction error signals are believed to drive...
The human sensorimotor system is sensitive to both limb-related prediction errors and task-related performance errors. Prediction error signals are believed to drive implicit refinements to motor plans. However, an understanding of the mechanisms that performance errors stimulate has remained unclear largely because their effects have not been probed in isolation from prediction errors. Diverging from past work, we induced performance errors independent of prediction errors by shifting the location of a reach target but keeping the intended and actual kinematic consequences of the motion matched. Our first two experiments revealed that rather than implicit learning, motor adjustments in response to performance errors reflect the use of deliberative, volitional strategies. Our third experiment revealed a potential dissociation of performance-error-driven strategies based on error size. Specifically, behavioral changes following large errors were consistent with goal-directed or model-based control, known to be supported by connections between prefrontal cortex and associative striatum. In contrast, motor changes following smaller performance errors carried signatures of model-free stimulus-response learning, of the kind underpinned by pathways between motor cortical areas and sensorimotor striatum. Across all experiments, we also found remarkably faster re-learning, advocating that such "savings" is associated with retrieval of previously learned strategic error compensation and may not require a history of exposure to limb-related errors.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Biomechanical Phenomena; Humans; Learning; Psychomotor Performance; Task Performance and Analysis
PubMed: 35110383
DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0371-21.2022 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Jul 2016Sensorimotor adaptation tasks have been used to characterize processes responsible for calibrating the mapping between desired outcomes and motor commands. Research has... (Review)
Review
Sensorimotor adaptation tasks have been used to characterize processes responsible for calibrating the mapping between desired outcomes and motor commands. Research has focused on how this form of error-based learning takes place in an implicit and automatic manner. However, recent work has revealed the operation of multiple learning processes, even in this simple form of learning. This review focuses on the contribution of cognitive strategies and heuristics to sensorimotor learning, and how these processes enable humans to rapidly explore and evaluate novel solutions to enable flexible, goal-oriented behavior. This new work points to limitations in current computational models, and how these must be updated to describe the conjoint impact of multiple processes in sensorimotor learning.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Adaptation, Psychological; Cognition; Humans; Learning; Models, Psychological; Motor Skills; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Sensorimotor Cortex
PubMed: 27261056
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.05.002 -
Child Development Sep 2019We investigated the real-time cascade of postural, visual, and manual actions for object prehension in 38 6- to 12-month-old infants (all independent sitters) and eight...
We investigated the real-time cascade of postural, visual, and manual actions for object prehension in 38 6- to 12-month-old infants (all independent sitters) and eight adults. Participants' task was to retrieve a target as they spun past it at different speeds on a motorized chair. A head-mounted eye tracker recorded visual actions and video captured postural and manual actions. Prehension played out in a coordinated sequence of postural-visual-manual behaviors starting with turning the head and trunk to bring the toy into view, which in turn instigated the start of the reach. Visually fixating the toy to locate its position guided the hand for toy contact and retrieval. Prehension performance decreased at faster speeds, but quick planning and implementation of actions predicted better performance.
Topics: Adolescent; Female; Hand; Humans; Infant; Male; Motor Skills; Posture; Psychomotor Performance; Young Adult
PubMed: 31325171
DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13282 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Jun 2023To steer a vehicle, humans must process incoming signals that provide information about their movement through the world. These signals are used to inform motor control...
To steer a vehicle, humans must process incoming signals that provide information about their movement through the world. These signals are used to inform motor control responses that are appropriately timed and of the correct magnitude. However, the perceptual mechanisms determining how drivers process visual information remain unclear. Previous research has demonstrated that when steering toward a straight road-line, drivers accumulate perceptual evidence (error) over time to initiate steering action (Accumulator framework), rather than waiting for perceptual evidence to surpass time-independent fixed thresholds (Threshold framework). The more general case of steering around bends (with a requirement that the trajectory is adjusted to match the road curvature ahead) provides richer continuously varying information. The current experiment aims to establish whether the Accumulator framework provides a good description of human responses when steering toward curved road-lines. Using a computer-generated steering correction paradigm, drivers (N = 11) steered toward intermittently appearing curved road-lines that varied in position and radius with respect to the driver's trajectory. The Threshold framework predicted that steering responses would be of fixed magnitude and at fixed absolute errors across conditions regardless of the rate of error development. Conversely, the Accumulator framework predicted that drivers should respond to larger absolute errors when the error signal developed at a faster rate. Results were consistent with an Accumulator framework in a manner that supports previous investigations and the computational modeling literature. We propose that the accumulation of perceptual evidence captures human behavior in a variety of steering contexts that drivers face in the real world. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Psychomotor Performance; Automobile Driving; Movement; Computer Simulation
PubMed: 37276122
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0001101 -
PloS One 2019The aim of this experiment was to assess if the previously supported relationship between the structure of motor variability and performance changes when the task or...
The aim of this experiment was to assess if the previously supported relationship between the structure of motor variability and performance changes when the task or organismic constraints encourage individuals to adjust their movement to achieve a goal. Forty-two healthy volunteers (aged 26.05 ± 5.02 years) performed three sets of cyclic pointing movements, 600 cycles each. Every set was performed under different conditions: 1) without a target; 2) with a target; 3) with a target and a financial reward. The amount of performance variability was analysed using the standard deviation of the medial-lateral (ML) and anterior-posterior (AP) axes and the bivariate variable error. The structure of the variability was assessed by Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) of the following time series: the coordinate values of the endpoint in ML, AP axes and resultant distance (RD), the hand orientation and the movement time. The performance of the task constrained with a target, or a target and reward, required higher implication to adjust an individual's movements to achieve the task goal, showing a decrease in dispersions and lower autocorrelation. Under the condition without a target, variability dispersion was positively related to autocorrelation of the movement values from ML axis and RD time series, and negatively related to the values from the hand orientation time series. There was a loss of the relationship between variability structure and performance when the task was constrained by the target and the reward. That could indicate different strategies of the participants to achieve the objective. Considering the results and previous studies, the relationship between variability structure and performance could depend on task constraints such as feedback, difficulty or the skill level of participants and it is mediated by individual constraints such as implication or intentionality.
Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Male; Movement; Psychomotor Performance; Task Performance and Analysis
PubMed: 30995243
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214237 -
Neural Plasticity 2018
Topics: Animals; Humans; Mental Disorders; Nervous System Diseases; Neuronal Plasticity; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 30425736
DOI: 10.1155/2018/9230704 -
Sleep Sep 2014
Topics: Automobile Driving; Female; Humans; Male; Psychomotor Performance; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders
PubMed: 25142560
DOI: 10.5665/sleep.3984 -
Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE Sep 2017Sustained attention is the ability to monitor intermittent and unpredictable events over a prolonged period of time. This attentional process subserves other aspects of...
Sustained attention is the ability to monitor intermittent and unpredictable events over a prolonged period of time. This attentional process subserves other aspects of cognition and is disrupted in certain neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders. Thus, it is clinically important to identify mechanisms that impair and improve sustained attention. Such mechanisms are often first discovered using rodent models. Therefore, several behavior procedures for testing aspects of sustained attention have been developed for rodents. One, first described by McGaughy and Sarter (1995), called the sustained attention task (SAT), trains rats to distinguish between signal (i.e., brief light presentation) and non-signal trials. The signals are short and thus require careful attention to be perceived. Attentional demands can be increased further by introducing a distractor (e.g., flashing houselight). We have modified this task for touchscreen operant chambers, which are configured with a touchscreen on one wall that can present stimuli and record responses. Here we detail our protocol for SAT in touchscreen chambers. Additionally, we present standard measures of performance in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. Comparable performance on this task in both sexes highlights its use for attention studies, especially as more researchers are including female rodents in their experimental design. Moreover, the easy implementation of SAT for the increasingly popular touchscreen chambers increases its utility.
Topics: Animals; Attention; Conditioning, Operant; Female; Male; Psychomotor Performance; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley
PubMed: 28994786
DOI: 10.3791/56219 -
Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences Oct 2018Although automobile driving is necessary for many people, including patients with mental disorders, the influence of psychotropic drugs on driving performance remains... (Review)
Review
Although automobile driving is necessary for many people, including patients with mental disorders, the influence of psychotropic drugs on driving performance remains unclear and requires scientific verification. Therefore, the objective of this study was to conduct a review of the literature in order to aid the development of a valid evaluation method regarding the influence of medication on driving performance. We conducted a literature search using two sets of terms on PubMed. One set was related to psychotropic drugs, and the other to driving tests. We excluded reviews and case studies and added literature found on other sites. A total of 121 relevant reports were found. The experiments were roughly divided into on-the-road tests (ORT) and driving simulators (DS). Although highway driving tests in ORT are most often used to evaluate driving performance, DS are becoming increasingly common because of their safety and low cost. The validity of evaluation methods for alcohol should be verified; however, we found that there were few validated tests, especially for DS. The scenarios and measurement indices of each DS were different, which makes it difficult to compare the results of DS studies directly. No evaluation indices, except for SD of lateral position, were sufficiently validated. Although highway ORT are the gold standard, DS were shown to have an increasing role in evaluating driving performance. The reliability of DS needs to be established, as does their validation with alcohol in order to accumulate more high-quality evidence.
Topics: Automobile Driving; Behavior Rating Scale; Humans; Psychomotor Performance; Psychotropic Drugs
PubMed: 29962103
DOI: 10.1111/pcn.12734