Motor Imagery: Effects of Age, Task Complexity, and Task Setting.
Background/Study Context:Mental training may potentially enhance motor performance and self-efficacy in older adults. However, several studies revealed an age-related decay of motor imagery (MI), which suggests that mental training might be too challenging for older adults. Recognizing that laborato...
| Publicado en: | Experimental Aging Research Vol. 41; no. 1; pp. 25 - 39 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jan/Feb2015
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=103925581&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 103925581 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 0361073X 1HO jtl: Experimental Aging Research issn: 0361073X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jan/Feb2015 vid: 41 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 103925581 99963539 10.1080/0361073X.2015.978202 NLM25494669 103925581 ppf: 25 ppct: 14 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Motor Imagery: Effects of Age, Task Complexity, and Task Setting. aug: au: Kalicinski, Michael Kempe, Matthias Bock, Otmar affil: Institute of Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany sug: subj: Guided Imagery Motor Skills Age Factors Task Performance and Analysis Aging Serial Publications Human Male Female Data Analysis Descriptive Statistics Questionnaires Socioeconomic Factors Analysis of Variance Patient Care Methods Male Female ab: Background/Study Context:Mental training may potentially enhance motor performance and self-efficacy in older adults. However, several studies revealed an age-related decay of motor imagery (MI), which suggests that mental training might be too challenging for older adults. Recognizing that laboratory results are often not transferable to real-life situations, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate imagery performance in the elderly with a more real-life-like approach. Methods:MI performance of 21 older (70.28 ± 4.65 years) and 19 younger adults (24.89 ± 3.16 years) was estimated by mental chronometry from the first-person perspective. Subjects were asked to walk in a supermarket scenario straight ahead (A), or with two changes of direction (B), or with two changes of direction while retrieving products (C). The three tasks were completed first in the subjects’ imagination and then in reality, with time required as the dependent measure. MI ability was also assessed by the Controllability of Motor Imagery (CMI) test, in which subjects are required to mentally assume a sequence of body postures. Results:Age-related alterations of MI were observed for walking only in Tasks B and C, and only in terms of intersubject variability, not in terms of across-subject means. This is in contrast to earlier studies that used a less realistic walking scenario and found an age-related decay even for MI means. Age-related alterations of CMI were observed as well, but they correlated little with those of walking. Conclusion:These findings suggest that MI is not a global phenomenon, as it decays in old age independently in the temporal and in the spatial domain, decays less with simple than with complex tasks, and less in an everyday-like than in a typical laboratory setting. These characteristics of MI should be taken into account when assessing its decay in old age, and when designing mental training for the elderly. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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