HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: ptj.20070131v1 88/3/351    most recent Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Rapid Responses are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Boyd, L. A Articles by Siengsukon, C. F PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Boyd, L. A Articles by Siengsukon, C. F

Multidimensional Motor Sequence Learning Is Impaired in Older But Not Younger or Middle-Aged Adults

LA Boyd, PT, PhD, is Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology of Motor Learning, Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, T325-2211 Westbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2B5 Canada
ED Vidoni, PT, MSPT, is a graduate research assistant and PhD candidate, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kan
CF Siengsukon, PT, MPT, is a graduate research assistant and PhD candidate, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Kansas Medical Center

Address all correspondence to Dr Boyd at: lara.boyd{at}ubc.ca

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify which characteristics of a multidimensional sequence containing motor, spatial, and temporal elements would be most salient for motor sequence learning and whether age might differentially affect this learning.

Subjects: Younger (n=11, mean age=26.0 years), middle-aged (n=13, mean age=50.7 years), and older (n=11, mean age=77.5 years) adults who were neurologically intact participated in the study.

Methods: Participants practiced a sequencing task with repeated motor, spatial, and temporal dimensions for 2 days; on a separate third day, participants completed retention and interference tests designed to assess sequence learning and which elements of the sequence were learned. The mean median response time for each block of responses was used to assess motor sequence learning.

Results: Younger and middle-aged adults demonstrated sequence-specific motor learning at retention testing via faster response times for repeated sequences than random sequences; both of these groups showed interference for the motor dimension. In contrast, older adults demonstrated nonspecific learning (ie, similar improvements in response time for both random and repeated sequences). These findings were shown by a lack of difference between random and repeated sequence performance in the older adult group both at retention testing and during interference tests.

Conclusion and Discussion: Our data suggest that, when younger and middle-aged adults practice sequences containing multiple dimensions of movement, the motor element is most important for motor learning. The absence of sequence-specific change demonstrated by an older adult group that was healthy suggests an age-related impairment in motor learning that may have profound implications for rehabilitation.