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research article

Spectral Variability in the Aged Brain during Fine Motor Control

Quandt, Fanny
•
Bönstrup, Marlene
•
Schulz, Robert
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December 21, 2016
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Physiological aging is paralleled by a decline of fine motor skills accompanied by structural and functional alterations of the underlying brain network. Here, we aim to investigate age-related changes in the spectral distribution of neuronal oscillations during fine skilled motor function. We employ the concept of spectral entropy in order to describe the flatness and peaked-ness of a frequency spectrum to quantify changes in the spectral distribution of the oscillatory motor response in the aged brain. Electroencephalogram was recorded in elderly (n = 32) and young (n = 34) participants who performed either a cued finger movement or a pinch or a whole hand grip task with their dominant right hand. Whereas young participant showed distinct, well-defined movement-related power decreases in the alpha and upper beta band, elderly participants exhibited a flat broadband, frequency-unspecific power desynchronization. This broadband response was reflected by an increase of spectral entropy over sensorimotor and frontal areas in the aged brain. Neuronal activation patterns differed between motor tasks in the young brain, while the aged brain showed a similar activation pattern in all tasks. Moreover, we found a wider recruitment of the cortical motor network in the aged brain. The present study adds to the understanding of age-related changes of neural coding during skilled motor behavior, revealing a less predictable signal with great variability across frequencies in a wide cortical motor network in the aged brain. The increase in entropy in the aged brain could be a reflection of random noise-like activity or could represent a compensatory mechanism that serves a functional role.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.3389/fnagi.2016.00305
Author(s)
Quandt, Fanny
Bönstrup, Marlene
Schulz, Robert
Timmermann, Jan E.
Zimerman, Maximo
Nolte, Guido
Hummel, Friedhelm C.  
Date Issued

2016-12-21

Published in
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
Volume

8

Start page

305

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
UPHUMMEL  
Available on Infoscience
June 2, 2020
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/169059
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