Age-dependent changes in motor learning capabilities

运动学习能力随年龄的变化

• 批准号: 7029189
• 负责人: MICHAEL Joel COHEN
• 金额: $ 25.5万
• 依托单位: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INST FOR RES/EDUC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-02-15 至 2006-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7029189
• 关键词: age difference; aging; behavior test; behavioral /social science research tag; clinical research; functional ability; human middle age (35-64); human old age (65+); human subject; learning; psychomotor function; rehabilitation; short term memory; training; young adult human (21-34)

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The limited research on age-related motor learning capabilities suggests that the elderly do not learn as well as the young. Potential reasons for the learning deficits are many including alterations in brain structures related to working and episodic memory and motor function. Knowing the capabilities of older adults to learn new motor skills has important implications for quality of life and the development of retraining programs for the elderly. Modern motor learning theories postulate that successful rehabilitation/retraining should result in long-term retention, transfer and generalization of newly learned and/or retrained skills. Most training strategies use repetitive practice and frequent augmented feedback: strategies which focus on performance during the acquisition of skills. The assumption that the performance levels achieved during acquisition by these methods will continue for the long-term; however, is not empirically supported. In fact, motor learning research has established that repetitive training and frequent feedback, found to enhance short-term performance, produce poorer long-term retention and transfer than schedules which vary the conditions of practice or limit augmented feedback. Two well-study paradigms that improve retention and transfer are random practice, which varies the tasks practiced, and schedules that limit knowledge of results such as faded and bandwidth feedback. Compared to static practice and frequent feedback, each produces poorer initial acquisition performance, but superior retention and transfer capabilities. Proposed mechanisms for the improved capabilities are increased activity-dependent plasticity of brain subsystems for sustained attention, and/or more developed, flexible memory representations of the motor program. A substantial research indicates that aging correlates with declines in sustained attention, episodic and working memory that could impact the effectiveness of variable practice schedules. The proposed research will compare learning of a new motor skill (lever aiming task) across four age groups under conditions of blocked (static) or random (dynamic practice) or conditions of constant or limited knowledge of results. Additionally we will run these paradigms with an MRI-compatible force transducer during functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain.

描述（由申请人提供）：关于年龄相关运动能力的有限研究表明，老年人的学习不如年轻人。学习缺陷的潜在原因包括许多与工作和情节记忆和运动功能有关的大脑结构的改变。了解老年人学习新运动技能的能力对生活质量和对老年人的再培训计划的发展具有重要意义。现代运动学习理论假定，成功的康复/再培训应导致新知识和/或再培训技能的长期保留，转移和泛化。大多数培训策略都使用重复实践和频繁的增强反馈：专注于在技能中获得绩效的策略。这些方法在获取过程中达到的绩效水平的假设将长期持续；但是，没有得到经验支持。实际上，运动学习研究已经确定，重复的培训和频繁的反馈，发现可以提高短期绩效，长期保留和转移比改变实践条件或限制增强反馈条件的时间表较差。两个改善保留和转​​移的良好研究范式是随机实践，这会改变练习的任务，并计划限制诸如褪色和带宽反馈之类的结果知识。与静态实践和频繁的反馈相比，每种都会产生较差的初始获取绩效，但具有出色的保留和转移功能。提出的提高功能的机制是增加活动子系统的活性依赖性可塑性，以持续关注和/或更多发达的运动计划的灵活记忆表示。一项实质性的研究表明，老龄化与持续的关注，情节和工作记忆的下降相关，这可能会影响可变实践时间表的有效性。拟议的研究将在四个年龄段（静态）或随机（动态实践）或恒定或有限的结果知识的条件下，将四个年龄段的新运动技能（杠杆瞄准任务）进行比较。此外，在大脑的功能磁共振成像过程中，我们将使用与MRI兼容的力传感器一起运行这些范式。