Abstract
Aging is associated with profound alterations in motor control that may be exacerbated by age-related executive functioning decline. Executive functions span multiple facets including inhibition (suppressing unwanted response tendencies), shifting (switching between cognitive operations), and updating (managing working memory content). However, comprehensive studies regarding the contributions of single facets of executive functioning to movement control in older adults are still lacking. A battery of nine neuropsychological tasks was administered to n = 92 older adults in order to derive latent factors for inhibition, shifting, and updating by structural equation modeling. A bimanual task was used to assess complex motor control. A sample of n = 26 young adults served as a control group to verify age-related performance differences. In older adults, structural equation models revealed that performance on the most challenging condition of the complex motor task was best predicted by the updating factor and by general executive functioning performance. These data suggest a central role for working memory updating in complex motor performance and contribute to our understanding of how individual differences in executive functioning relate to movement control in older adults.
Highlights
Aging is associated with a motor functioning decline that must be addressed to promote healthy and active living throughout the lifespan [1, 2]
This can be explained by generally slowed reaction times (RTs) in older adults, which may have masked condition differences, whereas RTs showed stronger modulations as a function of condition in young adults
This study is the first to examine the contributions of individual differences in distinct facets of executive functioning to complex motor performance in older adults by latent variable modeling
Summary
Aging is associated with a motor functioning decline that must be addressed to promote healthy and active living throughout the lifespan [1, 2]. Evidence from dual-task paradigms and findings of cortical hyperactivation from functional neuroimaging suggest motor control to become less automated and more effortful during aging [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Older adults have been suggested to engage higher-order cognition (executive functions) to a larger extent than younger adults when performing complex motor tasks, possibly reflecting the recruitment of generic brain regions to support motor performance [3,4,5, 8,9,10]. Intact executive functioning may be crucial for older adults when performing complex motor control tasks, such as bimanual coordination [6, 11, 12]. Executive functions decline during aging [13,14,15,16]. Such executive functioning decline might exacerbate age-related difficulties in motor control and should be taken into account when investigating age-related changes in motor functions
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