Experimental gerontology
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Experimental gerontology · Jun 2011
Comparative StudyAging effects on the control of grip force magnitude: an fMRI study.
Functional neuroimaging techniques have allowed for investigations into the mechanisms of age-related deterioration in motor control. This study used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate age related differences in the control of grip force magnitude. Using an event-related design, fMRI scans were completed on 13 older adults, and 13 gender matched younger adults, while using their dominant hand to squeeze a rubber bulb for 4s at 10%, 40% or 70% of their maximum voluntary contraction. ⋯ The 7 clusters that showed significant differences tended to be areas that are involved in visual-spatial and executive processing. The results of this study revealed that older adults require significantly higher activation of several areas to perform the same motor task as younger adults. Higher magnitudes of the BOLD signal in older adults may represent a compensatory pattern to counter age related deterioration in motor control systems.