Motor control deficits during aging have been well-documented. Various causes of neuromotor decline, including both peripheral and central neurological deficits, have been hypothesized. Here, we use a model of closed-loop sensorimotor control to examine the functional causes of motor control deficits during aging. We recruited 14 subjects aged 19-61 years old to participate in a study in which they performed single-joint compensatory and pursuit tracking tasks with their dominant hand. We found that visual response delay and visual noise increased with age, while reliance on visual feedback, especially during compensatory tracking decreased. Increases in visual noise were also positively correlated with increases in movement error during a reach and hold task. The results suggest an increase in noise within the visuomotor control system may contribute to the decline in motor performance during early aging.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/robert_scheidt/74/
Accepted version. Published as part of the proceedings of the conference, 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2014: 3562-3565. DOI. © 2014 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Used with permission.