Lobjois Régis, Benguigui Nicolas, Bertsch Jean, Broderick Michael P
Modeling, simulation and driving simulators, French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research, Arcueil, France.
Exp Brain Res. 2008 Feb;184(4):457-68. doi: 10.1007/s00221-007-1117-7. Epub 2007 Sep 12.
Daily living often requires pedestrians and drivers to adapt their behavior to the displacement of other objects in their environment in order to avoid collision. Yet little research has paid attention to the effect of age on the completion of such a challenging task. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between age and collision avoidance skill and whether a sporting activity affects this. Three age groups (20-30, 60-70, and 70-80 years) of tennis players and non-players launched a projectile toward a target in order to hit it before it was hit by another "object" (a stimulus represented by apparent motion of lights). If the participant judged that time-to-collision (TTC) of the moving stimulus was not long enough for him/her to launch the projectile in time to arrive before the stimulus, the participant had to inhibit the launching. Results showed that for the non-players the number of errors in the 70-80 year-old group was significantly higher than those of the 20-30 and 60-70 year-old groups, which did not differ from each other. However, this increase was not observed in the 70-80 year-old tennis players, demonstrating a beneficial effect of playing tennis on collision avoidance skill. Results also revealed that the older groups of both tennis players and non-players were subject to the typical age-related increase in response time. Additional analyses indicated that the 70-80 year-old non-players did not adjust their actions to these age-related changes in response time. The older tennis-playing participants, however, were more likely to adjust collision avoidance behavior to their diminished response times.
日常生活中，行人和司机常常需要调整自身行为，以适应周围其他物体的移动，从而避免碰撞。然而，很少有研究关注年龄对完成这项具有挑战性任务的影响。本研究的目的是探讨年龄与避撞技能之间的关系，以及体育活动是否会对此产生影响。三个年龄组（20 - 30岁、60 - 70岁和70 - 80岁）的网球运动员和非运动员向一个目标发射抛射物，以便在其被另一个“物体”（由灯光的表观运动表示的刺激物）击中之前击中目标。如果参与者判断移动刺激物的碰撞时间（TTC）不足以让他/她及时发射抛射物以在刺激物之前到达，那么参与者就必须抑制发射。结果表明，对于非运动员来说，70 - 80岁组的错误数量显著高于20 - 30岁组和60 - 70岁组，而后两组之间没有差异。然而，在70 - 80岁的网球运动员中未观察到这种增加，这表明打网球对避撞技能有有益影响。结果还显示，网球运动员和非运动员的老年组都出现了与年龄相关的典型反应时间增加。进一步分析表明，70 - 80岁的非运动员没有根据这些与年龄相关的反应时间变化来调整他们的行动。然而，年龄较大的网球参与者更有可能根据他们缩短的反应时间来调整避撞行为。
