Re-LOAD: Motor skill Learning in Older ADults: neurocognitive correlates, individual differences, and interventions to enable healthy aging

越来越多的人担心老年人比例的增长对社会的影响。这不仅关系到精神错乱的人，也关系到相对健康的老年人，他们的身体和认知能力也有所下降。这项拟议的研究解决了年龄对发展新运动技能的基本能力的影响，因为这些技能在现代社会的独立生活和参与中发挥着重要作用。首先，我们将通过一组三项运动任务来表征中老年群体在运动技能学习方面的年龄差异，这使得我们能够使用表现测量和脑电来评估各种(神经)认知过程的贡献。鉴于个体差异随着年龄的增长而增加--事实上，一些人甚至在年龄增长时仍表现出保留的功能--我们将解决第二个问题，即个体学习差异及其与生活方式因素的关系，如体力活动，以及在生命早期参与触摸打字、演奏乐器和手工制作等运动技能的盛行。利用项目第一部分和第二部分中获得的结果，在第三部分中，我们将使用我们的任务电池行为和生理干预措施来检查这些干预措施是否提高了老年人发展新运动技能的能力。

There is an increasing concern about the societal impact of the growing proportion of older adults. This concerns not only demented people, but also relatively healthy older adults who show physical and cognitive decline too. The proposed research addresses the effect of age on the basic capacity to develop new motor skills, as these skills play an important role for independent living and participation in modern society. We will characterize, first, age differences in middle-aged and older groups in motor skill learning with a battery of three motor tasks which allows us to assess the contribution of various (neuro-)cognitive processes using performance measures and EEG. Given that individual differences increase with age - indeed, some individuals exhibit preserved functions even into advancing age - we will address, second, individual learning differences, and their relationship with lifestyle factors like physical activity, and the prevalence of engaging in motor skills earlier in life like touch typing, playing instruments, and handcrafting. Using the results acquired in the first and second parts of the project, in the third part we will examine with our task battery behavioral and physiological interventions to see whether these increase the capacity of older individuals to develop new motor skills.