Failure to Engage Spatial Working Memory Contributes to Age-related Declines in Visuomotor Learning

摘要

It is well documented that both cognitive and motor learningnabilities decline with normative aging. Given that cognitivenprocesses such as working memory are engaged during the earlynstages of motor learning [Anguera, J., Reuter-Lorenz, P., Willingham,nD., & Seidler, R. Contributions of spatial working memory tonvisuomotor learning. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(9),n1917–1930, 2010], age-related declines in motor learning maynbe due in part to reductions in cognitive ability. The presentnstudy examined whether age-related declines in spatial workingnmemory (SWM) contribute to deficits in visuomotor adaptation.nYoung and older adult participants performed a visuomotor adaptationntask that involved adapting manual aiming movements tona 30° rotation of the visual feedback display as well as an SWMntask in an fMRI scanner. Young adults showed a steeper learningncurve than older adults during the early adaptation period. Thenrate of early adaptation was correlated with SWM performancenfor the young, but not older, adults. Both groups showed similarnbrain activation patterns for the SWM task, including engagementnof the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and bilateralninferior parietal lobules. However, when the SWM activationnwas used as a limiting mask, younger adults showed neural activationnthat overlapped with the early adaptation period, whereasnolder adults did not. A partial correlation controlling for age revealednthat the rate of early adaptation correlated with the amountnof activation at the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findingsnsuggest that a failure to effectively engage SWM processesnduring learning contributes to age-related deficits in visuomotornadaptation. ■