Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Leuven Brain Institute (LBI), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Neurobiol Aging. 2019 Aug;80:138-153. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2019.03.020. Epub 2019 Apr 19.
A wide range of motor function declines with aging. Motor adaptation, which occurs when participants learn to reach accurately to a target despite a perturbation, does not deviate from this rule. There are currently 3 major hypotheses that have been put forward to explain this age-related decline in adaptation: deterioration of internal model recalibration due to age-related cerebellar degeneration, impairment of the cognitive component of motor adaptation, and deficit in the retention of the learned movement. In the present study, we systematically investigated these 3 hypotheses in a large sample of older women and men. We demonstrate that age-related deficits in motor adaptation are not due to impaired internal model recalibration or impaired retention of motor memory. Rather, we found that the cognitive component was reduced in older people. Therefore, our study suggests the interesting possibility that cerebellar-based mechanisms do not deteriorate with age despite cerebellar degeneration. In contrast, internal model recalibration appears to compensate for deficits in the cognitive component of this type of learning.
随着年龄的增长，各种运动功能都会下降。运动适应是指参与者在受到干扰的情况下学会准确地到达目标，而这种适应并不会偏离这一规律。目前有 3 个主要假说被提出，以解释这种与年龄相关的适应能力下降：由于与年龄相关的小脑退化导致内部模型重新校准的恶化、运动适应的认知成分受损，以及所学运动的保留缺陷。在本研究中，我们在一大群老年女性和男性中系统地研究了这 3 个假说。我们证明，运动适应的与年龄相关的缺陷不是由于内部模型重新校准受损或运动记忆保留受损所致。相反，我们发现老年人的认知成分减少了。因此，我们的研究表明了一个有趣的可能性，即尽管小脑退化，小脑为基础的机制并不会随着年龄的增长而恶化。相比之下，内部模型重新校准似乎可以弥补这种学习的认知成分的缺陷。
