Abstract
The issue of complexity is more and more present in numerous domains of biological research, including aging research. In the present paper, based on a selective review of literature, we propose both a conceptual and a methodological framework to address age-related changes in functional complexity of the neurobehavioral system, presumably resulting from modifications of the coupling between cognitive and sensorimotor processes. In particular, after reviewing pioneering and more recent studies on aging and complexity in the neuromusculoskeletal system, we explore the possibility that an age-induced increase in the coupling between cognitive and sensorimotor domains could be captured by a stronger covariation of high-order variables, common to both cognitive and sensorimotor functioning. Our main assumption is that these variables could behave as neurobehavioral markers of aging in the neuromusculoskeletal system. The present approach markedly differs from other traditional approaches, which focused on process-specific variable correlates of chronological age, domain-by-domain, and task-by-task. It provides a coherent conceptual framework, a terminology, and a method for studying age-related coupling of cognitive and sensorimotor processes with the use of complexity and nonlinear dynamical systems theories.
Highlights
The passage of time in the organism ineluctably leads to structural and functional alterations in its different component subsystems, which result in a decline of performance and loss of behavioral adaptability in many daily living situations
Based on a brief survey of the existing literature, the present paper aims to provide a conceptual framework for understanding age-related changes in neurobehavioral complexity, in the theoretical context of analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems
Concluding Remarks and Perspectives Our conviction is that changes in complexity in the neurobehavioral system are the expression of subtle changes, which take place in active dimensions within the system
Summary
In the present paper, based on a selective review of literature, we propose both a conceptual and a methodological framework to address age-related changes in functional complexity of the neurobehavioral system, presumably resulting from modifications of the coupling between cognitive and sensorimotor processes. The present approach markedly differs from other traditional approaches, which focused on process-specific variable correlates of chronological age, domain-by-domain, and task-by-task. It provides a coherent conceptual framework, a terminology, and a method for studying age-related coupling of cognitive and sensorimotor processes with the use of complexity and nonlinear dynamical systems theories
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