Visual Information Processing in Older Adults: Force Control and Motor Unit Pool Modulation
J Mot Behav. 2023 Dec 28:1-9. doi: 10.1080/00222895.2023.2298888. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTIncreased visual information about a task impairs force control in older adults. To date, however, it remains unclear how increased visual information changes the activation of the motor unit pool differently for young and older adults. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how increased visual information alters the activation of the motor neuron pool and influences force control in older adults. Fifteen older adults (66-86 years, seven women) and fifteen young adults (18-30 years, eight women) conducted a submaximal constan...
Source: Journal of Motor Behavior - December 28, 2023 Category: Neurology Authors: MinHyuk Kwon Evangelos A Christou Source Type: research

Verbal Encouragement Provokes Significant Increases in Maximal Volitional Dynamic Postural Sway
J Mot Behav. 2023 Dec 27:1-8. doi: 10.1080/00222895.2023.2297884. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTLimits of Stability protocols are typically target-oriented, leaving volitional aspects of control unobservable. A novel unconstrained protocol, volitional Limits of Stability (vLOS), shows high test-retest-reliability. We tested if verbal encouragement impacts this protocol. Forty healthy young adults (age 20.1 ± .9 years) performed three trials of vLoS with instructions that were agnostic to strategy or vigor, except trial three included verbal encouragement. Total sway area was used to metric the maximum volitional dynamic s...
Source: Journal of Motor Behavior - December 27, 2023 Category: Neurology Authors: Joshua Haworth Trevor Lopatin Emily Daniels Brandon Dykstra Bradley Kendall Daniel Goble Source Type: research

The Complexity of Head Movement is Correlated with Learning about Affordances for Walking
J Mot Behav. 2023 Dec 21:1-15. doi: 10.1080/00222895.2023.2293000. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTWe asked whether the quantitative kinematics of standing postural activity might be related to short-term learning of affordances. Standing participants viewed a narrow path for 15 s, and then gave perceptual reports about the distance that they could walk along the path while wearing a weighted vest (novel affordance) or while not wearing the vest (familiar affordance). In a control condition, participants gave perceptual reports about egocentric distance along the path. During the 15 s viewing intervals, we measured the kinem...
Source: Journal of Motor Behavior - December 21, 2023 Category: Neurology Authors: Nicolette A Peterson Alen Hajnal Jeffrey B Wagman Thomas A Stoffregen Source Type: research