Wunderle Veronika, Kuzu Taylan D, Tscherpel Caroline, Fink Gereon R, Grefkes Christian, Weiss Peter H
Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2024 May 15;16:1368052. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1368052. eCollection 2024.
Age-related motor impairments often cause caregiver dependency or even hospitalization. However, comprehensive investigations of the different motor abilities and the changes thereof across the adult lifespan remain sparse. We, therefore, extensively assessed essential basic and complex motor functions in 444 healthy adults covering a wide age range (range 21 to 88 years). Basic motor functions, here defined as simple isolated single or repetitive movements in one direction, were assessed by means of maximum grip strength (GS) and maximum finger-tapping frequency (FTF). Complex motor functions, comprising composite sequential movements involving both proximal and distal joints/muscle groups, were evaluated with the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test (JTT), and the Purdue Pegboard Test. Men achieved higher scores than women concerning GS and FTF, whereas women stacked more pins per time than men during the Purdue Pegboard Test. There was no significant sex effect regarding JTT. We observed a significant but task-specific reduction of basic and complex motor performance scores across the adult lifespan. Linear regression analyses significantly predicted the participants' ages based on motor performance scores ( = 0.502). Of note, the ratio between the left- and right-hand performance remained stable across ages for all tests. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed three across all tests that represented dexterity, force, and speed. These components were consistently present in young (21-40 years), middle-aged (41-60 years), and older (61-88 years) adults, as well as in women and men. Based on the three , -means clustering analysis differentiated high- and low-performing participants across the adult life span. The rich motor data set of 444 healthy participants revealed age- and sex-dependent changes in essential basic and complex motor functions. Notably, the comprehensive assessment allowed for generating robust across the adult lifespan. Our data may serve as a reference for future studies of healthy subjects and patients with motor deficits. Moreover, these findings emphasize the importance of comprehensively assessing different motor functions, including dexterity, force, and speed, to characterize human motor abilities and their age-related decline.
与年龄相关的运动障碍常常导致对照料者的依赖，甚至需要住院治疗。然而，对于不同运动能力及其在成年期的变化进行全面调查的研究仍然很少。因此，我们对444名年龄跨度较大（21岁至88岁）的健康成年人进行了广泛的基本和复杂运动功能评估。基本运动功能在此被定义为在一个方向上简单的孤立单方向或重复运动，通过最大握力（GS）和最大手指敲击频率（FTF）进行评估。复杂运动功能包括涉及近端和远端关节/肌肉群的复合连续运动，通过动作研究臂测试（ARAT）、杰布森 - 泰勒手功能测试（JTT）和普渡钉板测试进行评估。在握力和手指敲击频率方面，男性得分高于女性，而在普渡钉板测试中，女性每次放置的钉子比男性多。关于杰布森 - 泰勒手功能测试，没有显著的性别差异。我们观察到在整个成年期，基本和复杂运动表现得分有显著但因任务而异的下降。线性回归分析根据运动表现得分显著预测了参与者的年龄（r = 0.502）。值得注意的是，在所有测试中，左右手表现的比率在不同年龄组中保持稳定。主成分分析（PCA）在所有测试中揭示了三个代表灵巧性、力量和速度的成分。这些成分在年轻（21 - 40岁）、中年（41 - 60岁）和老年（61 - 88岁）成年人以及女性和男性中均持续存在。基于这三个成分，K均值聚类分析区分了成年期不同表现水平的参与者。444名健康参与者丰富的运动数据集揭示了基本和复杂运动功能中与年龄和性别相关的变化。值得注意的是，这种全面评估能够在整个成年期生成可靠的参考数据。我们的数据可为未来对健康受试者和运动功能障碍患者的研究提供参考。此外，这些发现强调了全面评估不同运动功能（包括灵巧性、力量和速度）对于表征人类运动能力及其与年龄相关的衰退的重要性。
