Diminished joint coordination with aging leads to more variable hand paths |
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Authors: | Geetanjali Gera Dutta Sandra Maria Sbeghen Ferreira Freitas John Peter Scholz |
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Affiliation: | 1. Biomechanics and Movement Science Program, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA;2. Physical Therapy Department, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA;3. Graduate Program in Physical Therapy, São Paulo City University (UNICID), São Paulo, Brazil |
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Abstract: | Differences in joint coordination between arms and due to aging were studied in healthy young and older adults reaching to either a fixed, central target or to the same target when it could unexpectedly change location after reach initiation. Joint coordination was investigated by artificially removing the covariation of each joint’s motions with other joints’ motions. Uncontrolled manifold analysis was used to partition joint configuration variance into variance reflecting motor abundance (VUCM) and variance causing hand path variability (VORT). The extent to which VORT, related to the consistency of the hand path, increased after removing a joint’s covariation indicated the strength of its coordination with other joints. Young adults exhibited stronger indices of joint coordination, evidenced by a larger increase in VORT after removing joint covariation than for older adults. This effect was more striking for the dominant right compared to the left arm for young adults, but not for older adults, especially with target uncertainty. The results indicate that interjoint coordination in young adults leads to less hand path variability compared to older adults. |
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Keywords: | Coordination Reaching Uncontrolled manifold analysis Aging 2330 |
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