Investigating age-related decline in sensorimotor control using robotic tasks.
Aging is associated with changes in sensorimotor control that contribute to functional decline, mobility limitations, and increased fall risk. Traditional motor assessments often rely on subjective measures, highlighting the need for objective, quantitative tools. We developed three robot-based task...
| Publicado en: | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience pp. 1 - 22 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | equations & formulas pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2026
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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=191110938&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191110938 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 16634365 BG2U jtl: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience issn: 16634365 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2026 pid: 40038 pub: Frontiers Media S.A. artinfo: ui: 191110938 191110938 191110938 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1673516 191110938 ppf: 1 ppct: 21 formats: tig: atl: Investigating age-related decline in sensorimotor control using robotic tasks. aug: au: Alvarez-Hidalgo, Laura Edlmann, Ellie Schmidtmann, Gunnar Howard, Ian S. affil: School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom sug: subj: Aging Evaluation Cognition Central Nervous System Physiology Robotics Utilization Task Performance and Analysis Geriatrics Human Funding Source Male Female Adult Middle Age Experimental Studies Data Analysis Software Descriptive Statistics Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance Post Hoc Analysis Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Male Female ab: Aging is associated with changes in sensorimotor control that contribute to functional decline, mobility limitations, and increased fall risk. Traditional motor assessments often rely on subjective measures, highlighting the need for objective, quantitative tools. We developed three robot-based tasks using the vBOT planar manipulandum to evaluate sensorimotor performance in healthy young (<35 years) and older (>60 years) adults. These tasks uniquely combined bimanual control and altered dynamic conditions to assess age-related differences. The first task required bimanual coordination to control a virtual 2D arm over 400 center-out and return trials, targeting de novo motor learning. The second task involved unimanual reaching with the dominant hand, consisting of 200 trials in a null-field condition followed by 200 trials with object-like dynamic forces. The third task similarly began with 200 null-field trials and then introduced a viscous force field in the final 200 trials, with fast movements rewarded to encourage peak performance. This task also enabled comparison between dominant and non-dominant arms. All tasks detected age-related performance differences, with the viscous resistance task proving most sensitive to declines in movement speed, force generation, and response onset time. Scoring mechanisms that encouraged brisk performance amplified these effects. Across tasks, older adults generally moved more slowly, took longer to complete tasks, exerted lower peak forces, and had longer response onset times. However, some older participants performed comparably to younger individuals. In the third task, dominant arm performance consistently exceeded that of the non-dominant arm. These results demonstrate that robot-based tasks can sensitively quantify age-related sensorimotor decline and may offer valuable metrics for clinical assessment and monitoring. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: equations & formulas pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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