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Hand dominance and age have interactive effects on motor cortical representations.

ABSTRACT: Older adults exhibit more bilateral motor cortical activity during unimanual task performance than young adults. Interestingly, a similar pattern is seen in young adults with reduced hand dominance. However, older adults report stronger hand dominance than young adults, making it unclear how handedness is manifested in the aging motor cortex. Here, we investigated age differences in the relationships between handedness, motor cortical organization, and interhemispheric communication speed. We hypothesized that relationships between these variables would differ for young and older adults, consistent with our recent proposal of an age-related shift in interhemispheric interactions. We mapped motor cortical representations of the right and left first dorsal interosseous muscles using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in young and older adults recruited to represent a broad range of the handedness spectrum. We also measured interhemispheric communication speed and bimanual coordination. We observed that more strongly handed older adults exhibited more ipsilateral motor activity in response to TMS; this effect was not present in young adults. Furthermore, we found opposing relationships between interhemispheric communication speed and bimanual performance in the two age groups. Thus, handedness manifests itself differently in the motor cortices of young and older adults and has interactive effects with age.

SUBMITTER: Bernard JA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3458089 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Hand dominance and age have interactive effects on motor cortical representations.

Bernard Jessica A JA Seidler Rachael D RD

PloS one 20120925 9

Older adults exhibit more bilateral motor cortical activity during unimanual task performance than young adults. Interestingly, a similar pattern is seen in young adults with reduced hand dominance. However, older adults report stronger hand dominance than young adults, making it unclear how handedness is manifested in the aging motor cortex. Here, we investigated age differences in the relationships between handedness, motor cortical organization, and interhemispheric communication speed. We hy ...[more]

PMID: 23049800

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Poor eye-hand coordination is associated with the symptoms of the early stage of cognitive decline. However, previous research on the eye-hand coordination of older adults without cognitive impairment is scant. Therefore, this study examined the effects of interactive cognitive-motor training on the visual-motor integration, visual perception, and motor coordination sub-abilities of the eye-hand coordination and cognitive function in older adults. METHODS:A double-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted with older adults. Sixty-two older adults were randomly assigned to the experimental (interactive cognitive-motor training) or active control (passive information activity) group, and both groups received 30?min of training each week, three times a week for 8?weeks. The primary outcome was eye-hand coordination, which was further divided into the sub-abilities of visual-motor integration, visual perception, and motor coordination. The secondary outcome was cognitive function. The generalized estimating equation was used to examine differences in immediate posttest, 3-month posttest, and 6-month posttest results between the two groups. Additionally, the baseline effect sizes were compared with the effect sizes of the immediate posttest, 3-month posttest, and 6-month posttests for the experimental group. RESULTS:There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups. The only statistically significant difference between the groups was in the attention dimension of cognitive function (p =?0.04). The visual-motor integration results showed a small to moderate effect size for pre post comparisons. CONCLUSIONS:The 24 sessions of interactive cognitive-motor training showed no difference to an active control intervention. In the future, this intervention could be further investigated to establish whether it can be superior to an active control group in other populations. TRIAL REGISTRATION:The study protocol has been published on Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) (registry no.: ChiCTR-IOR-14005490 ).

Dataset Information

Hand dominance and age have interactive effects on motor cortical representations.

Publications

Hand dominance and age have interactive effects on motor cortical representations.

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