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Absence of cross-limb transfer of performance gains following ballistic motor practice in older adults
Citation
Hinder, MR and Schmidt, MW and Garry, MI and Carroll, TJ and Summers, JJ, Absence of cross-limb transfer of performance gains following ballistic motor practice in older adults, Journal of Applied Physiology, 110, (1) pp. 166-175. ISSN 8750-7587 (2011) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2011 the American Physiological Society
DOI: doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00958.2010
Abstract
The phenomenon of crosslimb transfer, in which unilateral strength training can result in bilateral strength gains, has recently been tested for ballistic movements. Performance gains associated with repetitive motor practice,
and the associated transfer, occur within a few minutes. In this study,
young and older adults were trained to perform ballistic abductions of
their dominant (right) index finger as quickly as possible. Performance
was assessed bilaterally before, during, and after this training. Both
groups exhibited large performance gains in the right hand as a result
of training (P < 0.001; young 84% improvement, older 70% improvement),
which were not significantly different between groups (P = 0.40). Transcranial magnetic stimulation revealed that the performance improvements were accompanied by increases in excitability,together with decreases in intracortical inhibition, of the projections to
both the trained muscle and the homologous muscle in the contralateral
limb (P < 0.05). The young group also exhibited performance
improvements as a result of cross-limb transfer in the left (untrained)
hand (P < 0.005), equivalent to 75% of the performance increase in
the trained hand. In contrast, there were no significant performance
gains in the left hand for the older group (P = 0.23). This was
surprising given that the older group exhibited a significantly greater
degree of mirror activity than the young group (P < 0.01) in the left
first dorsal interosseus muscle (FDI) during right hand movements.
Our findings suggest that older adults exhibit a reduced capacity for
cross-limb transfer, which may have implications for motor rehabilitation
programs after stroke.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | aging; motor learning; plasticity; transcranial magnetic stimulation |
Research Division: | Psychology |
Research Group: | Cognitive and computational psychology |
Research Field: | Sensory processes, perception and performance |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in psychology |
UTAS Author: | Hinder, MR (Associate Professor Mark Hinder) |
UTAS Author: | Schmidt, MW (Mr Matthew Schmidt) |
UTAS Author: | Garry, MI (Associate Professor Michael Garry) |
UTAS Author: | Summers, JJ (Professor Jeffery Summers) |
ID Code: | 71772 |
Year Published: | 2011 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 66 |
Deposited By: | Psychology |
Deposited On: | 2011-08-05 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-05 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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