Arousal and Motor Performance in Older Adults

老年人的觉醒和运动表现

• 批准号: 6439851
• 负责人: ROGER M. ENOKA
• 金额: $ 7.27万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-02-01 至 2004-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6439851
• 关键词: age difference; aging; anxiety; arousal; cognition; electrostimulus; emotions; functional ability; galvanic skin response; human middle age (35-64); human old age (65+); human subject; muscle contraction; neuromuscular function; patient oriented research; performance; physiology; psychological tests; psychology; psychophysiology; stimulus /response; stressor; young adult human (21-34)

The properties and function of the neuromuscular system change with advancing age. The effects on the performance capabilities of older adults are profound. We have found, for example, that finger movements are less steady in older adults compared with young adults. More recently, we have also demonstrated the impact of emotional state on neuromuscular function. We found that a stressor increased cognitive and physiological measures of arousal and impaired the ability of young men and women to exert a constant force during a submaximal pinch grip. It is likely that the same effect occurs in older adults. This led us to ask the question, does an increase in arousal further impair the steadiness of a submaximal pinch grip in older adults? Because baseline differences in steadiness are due to changes in the activation of muscle by nervous system, we hypothesize that an increase in arousal produces a greater deterioration of pinch-grip steadiness in older adults compared with young adults due the changes in motor unit function that occur with advancing age. We propose three specific aims to test this hypothesis: (1) to quantify the level of arousal evoked in young, middle-aged, and older adults in response to noxious stimulus using physiological and psychological measures; (2) to assess the fluctuations in force during a submaximal pinch grip performed by young, middle-aged, and older adults in the presence and absence of a noxious stimulus; (3) to examine the association between the changes in arousal fluctuations in pinch-grip force. We will quantify the moment-to-moment effect of the stressor on men and women with cognitive and physiological measures of arousal. The outcome variable will be the coefficient of variation for force during a submaximal pinch grip. We expect to find that the stress proposal will increase arousal to the same extent in all three groups of adults and that the impairment in steadiness will be proportional to the increase in arousal. These outcomes will result in a constant difference in steadiness between young and old adults, which will produce a much greater impairment in the simple motor task with an increase in arousal for the older adults. The findings will expand our understanding of the daily challenges experienced by older adults and will provide the foundation for a more extensive R01 application.

随着年龄的增长，神经肌肉系统的特性和功能变化。对老年人表现能力的影响是深远的。例如，我们发现与年轻人相比，老年人的手指运动稳定不足。最近，我们还证明了情绪状态对神经肌肉功能的影响。我们发现，压力源增加了唤醒的认知和生理量度，并损害了年轻男女在次次捏夹夹中发挥恒定力的能力。在老年人中可能会产生相同的影响。这使我们提出了一个问题，唤醒的增加是否进一步损害了老年人施加次最大的紧握控制的稳定性？由于稳定性的基线差异是由于神经系统通过神经系统激活肌肉的变化所致，因此我们假设唤醒的增加会导致老年人的捏湿度稳定性更大，而与年轻人的运动单位功能发生变化相比，年轻人随着年龄的增长而发生的变化。我们提出了三个特定的目的，以检验这一假设：（1）使用生理和心理学措施来量化年轻，中年和老年人在年轻，中年和老年人中引起的唤醒水平； （2）在存在和不存在有害刺激的情况下，由年轻，中年和老年人进行的次最大捏夹握持期间的波动； （3）检查捏湿力量唤醒波动的变化之间的关联。我们将量化压力源对具有认知和生理唤醒的男性和女性的瞬间影响。结果变量将是在次最大捏手握持期间力的变化系数。我们希望发现，在所有三组成年人中，压力提案将在相同的程度上增加唤醒，并且稳定的损害将与唤醒的增加成正比。这些结果将导致年轻人和老年人之间的稳定性持续差异，这将在简单的运动任务中产生更大的障碍，而老年人的唤醒会增加。这些发现将扩大我们对老年人每日挑战的理解，并为更广泛的R01应用提供基础。