Motor slowing with aging suggests declining brain health, and predicts age-related cognitive decline and future risks of neurodegenerative diseases, but the reported associations are often modest with great unexplained variation. Compared to motor performance alone, motor learning, reflecting brain plasticity, may better reflect age-related changes in brain structure and function.
Could motor learning performance be a key link between motor slowing, the aging brain and neurodegenerative diseases? This question leads to several high potential areas for research; 1) after accounting for motor performance, does motor learning performance add significantly to estimates of risk of future cognitive and motor decline, and neurodegenerative disease?, 2) compared to the brain earlier in life, how does aging brain change during motor learning?, and 3) can interventions based on motor learning training delay or prevent future cognitive and motor decline and the onset of neurodegenerative diseases? For all these questions, we must also account for variability that might suggest differential effects in subgroups based on intrinsic biology (eg. genotype, sex), nurture (eg. environment, lifestyle, education/resilience), health profile (eg. vascular disease, sensory deficits), type of learning (e.g. motor vs language; implicit vs explicit), and etc.
We welcome submission of original research articles, opinion papers, and review articles related to research focused on understanding:
• motor learning in the context of the aging brain and neurodegenerative diseases
• mechanisms underlying motor learning in the aging brain
• the role of motor learning in preventing age-related decline and neurodegeneration
Motor slowing with aging suggests declining brain health, and predicts age-related cognitive decline and future risks of neurodegenerative diseases, but the reported associations are often modest with great unexplained variation. Compared to motor performance alone, motor learning, reflecting brain plasticity, may better reflect age-related changes in brain structure and function.
Could motor learning performance be a key link between motor slowing, the aging brain and neurodegenerative diseases? This question leads to several high potential areas for research; 1) after accounting for motor performance, does motor learning performance add significantly to estimates of risk of future cognitive and motor decline, and neurodegenerative disease?, 2) compared to the brain earlier in life, how does aging brain change during motor learning?, and 3) can interventions based on motor learning training delay or prevent future cognitive and motor decline and the onset of neurodegenerative diseases? For all these questions, we must also account for variability that might suggest differential effects in subgroups based on intrinsic biology (eg. genotype, sex), nurture (eg. environment, lifestyle, education/resilience), health profile (eg. vascular disease, sensory deficits), type of learning (e.g. motor vs language; implicit vs explicit), and etc.
We welcome submission of original research articles, opinion papers, and review articles related to research focused on understanding:
• motor learning in the context of the aging brain and neurodegenerative diseases
• mechanisms underlying motor learning in the aging brain
• the role of motor learning in preventing age-related decline and neurodegeneration