Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
J Neurophysiol. 2023 Nov 1;130(5):1183-1193. doi: 10.1152/jn.00364.2022. Epub 2023 Sep 13.
Sensory processing consists in the integration and interpretation of somatosensory information. It builds upon proprioception but is a distinct function requiring complex processing by the brain over time. Currently little is known about the effect of aging on sensory processing ability or the influence of other covariates such as motor function, proprioception, or cognition. In this study, we measured upper limb passive and active sensory processing, motor function, proprioception, and cognition in 40 healthy younger adults and 54 older adults. We analyzed age differences across all measures and evaluated the influence of covariates on sensory processing through regression. Our results showed larger effect sizes for age differences in sensory processing ( = 0.38) compared with motor function ( = 0.18-0.22) and proprioception ( = 0.10-0.27) but smaller than for cognition ( = 0.56-0.63). Aside from age, we found no evidence that sensory processing performance was related to motor function or proprioception, but active sensory processing was related to cognition (β = 0.30-0.42). In conclusion, sensory processing showed an age-related decline, whereas some proprioceptive and motor abilities were preserved across age. Sensory processing consists in the integration and interpretation of sensory information by the brain over time and can be affected by lesion while proprioception remains intact. We investigated how sensory processing can be used to reproduce and identify shapes. We showed that the effect of age on sensory processing is more pronounced than its effect on proprioception or motor function. Age and cognition are related to sensory processing, not proprioception or motor function.
感觉处理包括躯体感觉信息的整合和解释。它建立在本体感觉的基础上,但作为一种独特的功能,需要大脑随着时间的推移进行复杂的处理。目前,人们对衰老对感觉处理能力的影响以及其他协变量(如运动功能、本体感觉或认知)的影响知之甚少。在这项研究中,我们测量了 40 名健康的年轻成年人和 54 名老年人的上肢被动和主动感觉处理、运动功能、本体感觉和认知能力。我们分析了所有测量指标的年龄差异,并通过回归评估了协变量对感觉处理的影响。我们的结果表明,与运动功能( = 0.18-0.22)和本体感觉( = 0.10-0.27)相比,感觉处理的年龄差异的效应量更大( = 0.38),但比认知( = 0.56-0.63)的效应量小。除了年龄,我们没有发现感觉处理表现与运动功能或本体感觉有关的证据,但主动感觉处理与认知有关(β = 0.30-0.42)。总之,感觉处理表现出与年龄相关的下降,而一些本体感觉和运动能力在整个年龄范围内保持不变。感觉处理是大脑随着时间的推移对感觉信息的整合和解释,它可以受到损伤的影响,而本体感觉仍然完整。我们研究了感觉处理如何用于再现和识别形状。我们表明,年龄对感觉处理的影响比其对本体感觉或运动功能的影响更为显著。年龄和认知与感觉处理有关,而与本体感觉或运动功能无关。