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Age-related reversal of postural adjustment characteristics during motor imagery
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Mitra, S., Doherty, Nicola, Boulton, Hayley and Maylor, Elizabeth A. (2016) Age-related reversal of postural adjustment characteristics during motor imagery. Psychology and Aging, 31 (8). pp. 958-969. doi:10.1037/pag0000120 ISSN 0882-7974.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pag0000120
Abstract
Physical and imagined movements show similar behavioral constraints and neurophysiological activation patterns. An inhibition mechanism is thought to suppress overt movement during motor imagery, but it does not effectively suppress autonomic or postural adjustments. Inhibitory processes and postural stability both deteriorate with age. Thus, older people’s balance is potentially vulnerable to interference from postural adjustments induced by thoughts about past or future actions. Here, young and older adults stood upright and executed or imagined manual reaching movements. Reported arm movement time (MT) of all participants increased with target distance. Older participants reported longer MT than young participants when executing arm movements, but not when imagining them. Older adults’ anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) postural sway was higher than young adults’ at baseline, but their AP sway fell below their baseline level during manual imagery. In contrast, young adults’ AP sway increased during imagery relative to their baseline. A similar tendency to reduce sway in the ML direction was also observed in older adults during imagery in a challenging stance. These results suggest that postural response during manual motor imagery reverses direction with age. Motor imagery and action planning are ubiquitous tasks, and older people are likely to spend more time engaged in them. The shift toward restricting body sway during these tasks is akin to a postural threat response with the potential to interfere with balance during activities of daily living.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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Subjects: | Q Science > QP Physiology | ||||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Aging -- Physiological aspects, Posture , Neurophysiology | ||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Psychology and Aging | ||||||||||
Publisher: | American Psychological Association | ||||||||||
ISSN: | 0882-7974 | ||||||||||
Official Date: | December 2016 | ||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 31 | ||||||||||
Number: | 8 | ||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 958-969 | ||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1037/pag0000120 | ||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 22 July 2016 | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 22 February 2017 | ||||||||||
Funder: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC), University of Warwick Postgraduate Research Fellowship | ||||||||||
Grant number: | Grant RES-000-22-4433 (ESRC) |
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