Innopolis scientists have found out why the elderly move slower than the young

Older people move more slowly than younger people because their brains work differently. Every time he plans the movement anew, found out in the laboratory of neuroscience and cognitive technologies of the NTI competence center in the direction of “Technologies of components of robotics and mechatronics” on the basis of the University of Innopolis.

The head of the laboratory shared the results of the research Alexander Khramov… According to him, scientific work will help diagnose the level of age-related degradation of the central nervous system, and in the future it will be possible to talk about the assessment of the biological age of the brain by the state of the sensorimotor function.

“Previous research by scientists from New York University has shown a decline in the effectiveness of working memory with age, so we concluded that the representation of motor actions in memory in older people is worse. Therefore, their brain plans movement anew each time, and does not extract a pattern of movement from working memory as in young people, ”said Khramov, quoted by TASS.

Tests have shown that young and old people have different mechanisms of neural interactions that ensure the planning of motor activity. In young people, before movement, functional connections in the area of ​​the interhemispheric groove increase, that is, the onset of familiar motor activity activates motor working memory and allows the formation and processing of motor memories – previously stored information about motor action, obtained from previous experience. In older people, scientists have observed a different structure of functional connections – a strong connection between the frontal, central-parietal and bilateral temporal regions.

A scientific article about the joint work of specialists from a Russian IT university and their colleagues from Saratov Medical University and Northwestern Polytechnic University of China was published in the PLOS One magazine.

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