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Age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of Hick–Hyman and Fitts’ laws
The present study aimed to determine whether the general slowing hypothesis (GSH) could be extended to the motor domain by comparing cognitive and motor age-related slowing. To achieve this objective, we compared the slopes of Hick–Hyman’s law and Fitts’ law, in young and older adults. The general h...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2013
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797466/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24137129 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2013.00062 |
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author | Sleimen-Malkoun, Rita Temprado, Jean-Jacques Berton, Eric |
author_facet | Sleimen-Malkoun, Rita Temprado, Jean-Jacques Berton, Eric |
author_sort | Sleimen-Malkoun, Rita |
collection | PubMed |
description | The present study aimed to determine whether the general slowing hypothesis (GSH) could be extended to the motor domain by comparing cognitive and motor age-related slowing. To achieve this objective, we compared the slopes of Hick–Hyman’s law and Fitts’ law, in young and older adults. The general hypothesis was that, due to the dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor neural resources during aging, the slopes of Hick–Hyman’s law and Fitts’ law should become closer, if not similar, in older adults. Ten young adults (mean age = 26 ± 3 years) and 14 older adults (mean age = 78 ± 7 years) participated in the experiment. They had to perform a discrete rapid-aiming task and a reaction time (RT) task. In the aiming task, five index of difficulty (ID) levels were used (from three to seven bits by increments of 1.0 bit). Task difficulty was scaled via the manipulation of target distance from home position. In the RT task, five IDs were selected: 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 bits, with incompatible S–R associations. RT and movement times were recorded. Efficiency and Brinley regression functions were calculated. Age-related slowing ratios were estimated. Response times increased in both tasks in older adults. The slopes of Hick–Hyman’s law and Fitts’ law were steeper in older adults than in young participants. In young participants, the slope of Hick–Hyman’s law was smaller than that of Fitts’ law. In older adults, no difference was found. Slowing ratios observed in both tasks were equivalent. The present results extended the GSH to the motor domain. They suggested that, due to dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor neural resources, decrease in processing speed acts as a common cause to behavioral slowing in both cognitive and motor tasks. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3797466 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-37974662013-10-17 Age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of Hick–Hyman and Fitts’ laws Sleimen-Malkoun, Rita Temprado, Jean-Jacques Berton, Eric Front Aging Neurosci Neuroscience The present study aimed to determine whether the general slowing hypothesis (GSH) could be extended to the motor domain by comparing cognitive and motor age-related slowing. To achieve this objective, we compared the slopes of Hick–Hyman’s law and Fitts’ law, in young and older adults. The general hypothesis was that, due to the dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor neural resources during aging, the slopes of Hick–Hyman’s law and Fitts’ law should become closer, if not similar, in older adults. Ten young adults (mean age = 26 ± 3 years) and 14 older adults (mean age = 78 ± 7 years) participated in the experiment. They had to perform a discrete rapid-aiming task and a reaction time (RT) task. In the aiming task, five index of difficulty (ID) levels were used (from three to seven bits by increments of 1.0 bit). Task difficulty was scaled via the manipulation of target distance from home position. In the RT task, five IDs were selected: 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 bits, with incompatible S–R associations. RT and movement times were recorded. Efficiency and Brinley regression functions were calculated. Age-related slowing ratios were estimated. Response times increased in both tasks in older adults. The slopes of Hick–Hyman’s law and Fitts’ law were steeper in older adults than in young participants. In young participants, the slope of Hick–Hyman’s law was smaller than that of Fitts’ law. In older adults, no difference was found. Slowing ratios observed in both tasks were equivalent. The present results extended the GSH to the motor domain. They suggested that, due to dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor neural resources, decrease in processing speed acts as a common cause to behavioral slowing in both cognitive and motor tasks. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-10-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3797466/ /pubmed/24137129 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2013.00062 Text en Copyright © Sleimen-Malkoun, Temprado and Berton. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Neuroscience Sleimen-Malkoun, Rita Temprado, Jean-Jacques Berton, Eric Age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of Hick–Hyman and Fitts’ laws |
title | Age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of Hick–Hyman and Fitts’ laws |
title_full | Age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of Hick–Hyman and Fitts’ laws |
title_fullStr | Age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of Hick–Hyman and Fitts’ laws |
title_full_unstemmed | Age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of Hick–Hyman and Fitts’ laws |
title_short | Age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of Hick–Hyman and Fitts’ laws |
title_sort | age-related dedifferentiation of cognitive and motor slowing: insight from the comparison of hick–hyman and fitts’ laws |
topic | Neuroscience |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797466/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24137129 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2013.00062 |
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