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The influence of normal aging on the cortical processing of a simple motor task

From the Department of Neurology, Tuebingen University, Germany.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Christian Gerloff, Cortical Physiology Research Group, Department of Neurology, University of Tuebingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Str. 3, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany; e-mail: christian.gerloff{at}uni-tuebingen.de

OBJECTIVE: To assess the influence of normal aging on the cortical physiology of motor behavior.

METHODS: The authors studied cortical activation in eight elderly (55 to 76 years of age) and eight younger (18 to 27 years of age) healthy subjects while they performed a simple motor task. A 28-channel EEG was recorded; task-related power changes associated with repetitive, metronome-paced (1 Hz) finger movements were computed as a measure of cortical activation.

RESULTS: Distinct, age-dependent activation patterns were expressed in four distinct frequency ranges: low-alpha (10 to 11 Hz), high-alpha (12 to 13 Hz), low-beta (16 to 17 Hz), and high-beta (22 to 23 Hz) bands. The main findings were a greater overall activation and, more specifically, a pronounced bilateral activation of sensorimotor regions in elderly subjects for both alpha bands. Additionally, in the elderly subjects there was increased activation of the mesial frontocentral cortex (supplementary motor area region) in the high-beta band, whereas younger volunteers had a prominent activation of the left lateral premotor and sensorimotor region in this frequency range.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that the functional anatomy of the human motor system changes during normal aging. It appears that, for a given motor task, the aging brain recruits additional primary sensorimotor and premotor regions of both hemispheres.

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