Author : Rachel Goodman
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (133 download)
Book Synopsis The Effects of Aging on Sensory Feedback Utilization During the Planning of Upper Limb Movements by : Rachel Goodman
Download or read book The Effects of Aging on Sensory Feedback Utilization During the Planning of Upper Limb Movements written by Rachel Goodman and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previous work on sensorimotor integration for movement planning has mainly focused on visual environments and targets. Further, age-related adaptations to sensorimotor integration for movement planning are seldom explored. In the current dissertation, four experiments were conducted to investigate sensorimotor processes occurring during movement planning to targets of varying sensory modality, in both younger and older adults. They were asked to perform upper limb reaching movements to various target cues in the absence of visual feedback, and reaction time was evaluated as the main outcome variable. The goal of the first experiment was to investigate if target modality modulated movement planning time, and if these effects were different across age groups. The results showed longer reaction times for movements planned to somatosensory targets versus visual or bimodal targets, and these longer reaction times were significantly longer for older adults than for younger adults. The goals of the second and third experiments were to test for any contributing effects known to be affected by aging, such as sensory acuity or movement planning strategy. The results showed that older adults did not appear to have acuity deficits, nor did they plan their movements differently than younger adults to the various sensory cues. The goal of the fourth experiment was to implement a somatosensory perturbation to further investigate sensorimotor processes when planning movements to somatosensory targets. The results showed that somatosensory perturbations to the effector limb caused even further elongation of reaction times, and this effect was greater in older than younger adults. Overall, the current work provides a further look into the age-related differences in somatomotor integration processes, when planning movements to somatosensory targets. It was hypothesized that sensorimotor transformations may be responsible for the delays in movement planning time, as older adults may be mapping all cues into a visual reference frame, regardless of the presence of visual inputs.