Heenan Megan, Scheidt Robert A, Beardsley Scott A
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014;2014:3562-5. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944392.
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.
衰老过程中的运动控制缺陷已有充分记录。人们已经推测出神经运动衰退的各种原因，包括外周和中枢神经缺陷。在此，我们使用闭环感觉运动控制模型来研究衰老过程中运动控制缺陷的功能原因。我们招募了14名年龄在19至61岁之间的受试者参与一项研究，他们用优势手执行单关节补偿性和追踪性跟踪任务。我们发现，视觉反应延迟和视觉噪声随年龄增长而增加，而对视觉反馈的依赖，尤其是在补偿性跟踪过程中减少。视觉噪声的增加也与伸手并保持任务期间运动误差的增加呈正相关。结果表明，视觉运动控制系统内噪声的增加可能导致衰老早期运动表现的下降。
