The significance of job-related expertise in manual dexterity for tactile learning and somatosensory cortical plasticity in middle adulthood between 35 and 65 years of age

体感系统是高度可塑性的。它可以通过短期干预以及密集和长期使用(例如，手)来显著改善。这两种形式的触觉训练都会导致对触觉刺激的神经生理反应的变化，以及触觉知觉任务中行为表现的变化。研究表明，在触觉辨别任务中，老年人的基线水平低于年轻人，而年轻专家在触觉短期训练中的基线水平高于同龄新手，他们的反应特别好。这一明显的矛盾应该得到调查。因此，我们计划对中年两个年龄段的专家进行触觉短期培训。应将数据与已经调查过的新手样本进行比较。在前后测设计中，我们关注与干预相关的行为和神经生理水平的变化。这种干预包括对指尖进行高频触觉刺激。通过触觉、空间和时间辨别任务来评估行为表现。为了测量触觉辨别的神经生理学相关性，我们使用了脑电图仪。如果我们的假设得到证实，即年长的专家受益于大部分干预，这将暗示密集使用不仅对于保持手工灵活性，而且对于增强老年人的可塑性具有普遍重要性。

The somatosensory system is highly plastic. It can be remarkably modified by short term interventions as well as by intensive and long term use of, for example, the hands. Both forms of tactile training lead to changes in the neurophysiological response to tactile stimuli and to changes in the behavioral performance in tactile perceptual tasks. It was shown that both older adults, who perform on a lower baseline level than young adults in tactile discrimination tasks, and young experts, who perform on a higher baseline level than novices of the same age, respond particularly well on tactile short-term training. This apparent contradiction shall be investigated. Therefore we plan to apply a tactile short-term training to experts of two age groups of the middle-age life span. The data shall be compared to a sample of novices, which has already been investigated. We focus on intervention-related changes on the behavioral as well as on the neurophysiological level in a pre-posttest design. The intervention consists of a tactile high frequency stimulation on a fingertip. Behavioral performance is assessed by means of tactile spatial and temporal discrimination tasks. In order to measure neurophysiological correlates of tactile discrimination electroencephalography is used. If our hypothesis that older experts benefit most of the intervention can be confirmed, this would hint towards the general importance of intensive use not only for maintaining manual dexterity but also for enhancing plasticity in older ages.