Dual-Task Performance Reveals Increased Involvement of Executive Control in Fine Motor Sequencing in Healthy Aging

Sarah A. Fraser, Karen Z. H. Li and Virginia B. Penhune

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2010, vol. 65B, issue 5, 526-535

Abstract: The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of executive control in fine motor sequencing using a motor-cognitive dual-task paradigm. Younger and older adults performed a sequential tapping task separately and concurrently with a semantic judgment task (Experiment 1) and a mental arithmetic task (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 established that under low cognitive load, older adults were slower and less accurate in sequential tapping than younger adults. Load was manipulated in Experiment 2, and across mental arithmetic difficulty levels, older adults were less accurate in sequential tapping when performing mental arithmetic than younger adults. At the highest difficulty level, both groups suffered performance costs. In line with gross motor research, these findings suggest a role for executive functions in fine motor performance in old age. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbq036 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:65b:y:2010:i:5:p:526-535

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().