Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 12;11(1):789. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80916-8.
Motor learning is a lifelong process. However, age-related changes to musculoskeletal and sensory systems alter the relationship (or mapping) between sensory input and motor output, and thus potentially affect motor learning. Here we asked whether age affects the ability to adapt to and retain a novel visuomotor mapping learned during overground walking. We divided participants into one of three groups (n = 12 each) based on chronological age: a younger-aged group (20-39 years old); a middle-aged group (40-59 years old); and an older-aged group (60-80 years old). Participants learned a new visuomotor mapping, induced by prism lenses, during a precision walking task. We assessed retention one-week later. We did not detect significant effects of age on measures of adaptation or savings (defined as faster relearning). However, we found that older adults demonstrated reduced initial recall of the mapping, reflected by greater foot-placement error during the first adaptation trial one-week later. Additionally, we found that increased age significantly associated with reduced initial recall. Overall, our results suggest that aging does not impair adaptation and that older adults can demonstrate visuomotor savings. However, older adults require some initial context during relearning to recall the appropriate mapping.
运动学习是一个终身的过程。然而，与年龄相关的骨骼肌肉和感觉系统的变化改变了感觉输入和运动输出之间的关系（或映射），从而可能影响运动学习。在这里，我们想知道年龄是否会影响适应和保留在地面行走过程中学习到的新视动映射的能力。我们根据年龄将参与者分为三组（每组 12 人）：年轻组（20-39 岁）；中年组（40-59 岁）；和老年组（60-80 岁）。参与者在一项精确行走任务中通过棱镜镜片学习新的视动映射。一周后我们评估保留情况。我们没有发现年龄对适应或节省（定义为更快的重新学习）的测量有显著影响。然而，我们发现老年人在一周后的第一次适应试验中，由于脚部位置误差更大，表现出对映射的初始回忆减少。此外，我们发现年龄的增加与初始回忆的减少显著相关。总的来说，我们的结果表明，衰老不会损害适应能力，老年人可以表现出视动节省。然而，老年人在重新学习过程中需要一些初始的背景来回忆适当的映射。
