Older adults can improve movement using the same processes as babies
Doctors say that older adults can improve movement and accuracy by using the same processes that are used to help babies develop their motor skills.
Doctors from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev say that the same motor mechanism employed to help babies and infants develop their skills can also be used by older adults in order to improve movement accuracy.
“In early development, babies seem to make random movements in all directions until they learn to purposefully reach for objects,” says Dr. Shelly Levy-Tzedek, a lecturer in the BGU Department of Physiotherapy, Leon and Matilda Recanati School for Community Health Professions. “Their movements are variable until they find a solution for the problem at hand, like reaching for that Cheerios bit. When they find a good movement plan, they exploit it.”
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The doctors published their paper in Scientific Reports. During the study, the scientists hooked up the arms of older adults, over 70-years-old, to sensors that measured the rotation of the arm at the elbow.
Participants were then asked to make rhythmic movements of the forearm in a “windshield wiper” motion while trying to maintain certain speeds and arm amplitude, with and without visual feedback.
“Their movements were too slow and too small,” says Dr. Levy-Tzedek, who is also head of BGU’s Cognition, Aging and Rehabilitation Lab and a member of the University’s ABC Robotics Initiative. “We then encouraged them to make movements that were larger and faster, and their performance on the original task improved significantly.”
The participants were not able to do the requested task due to fatigue but the doctors observed that making mistakes helped improve future performance. They also found that once a better movement pattern was established, the variability dropped. Making exaggerated movements actually helped them fine-tune their control.
“We haven’t tested it directly in physical therapy, but perhaps getting older adults to make exaggerated movements can help fine-tune their performance on specific tasks that they find difficult to accomplish otherwise,” says Dr. Levy-Tzedek.
The same process is used in order to help developing children with their motor skills.
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