Movement structure in young and elderly adults during goal-directed movements of the left and right arm.

Elderly adults often exhibit performance deficits during goal-directed movements of the dominant arm compared with young adults. Recent studies involving hemispheric lateralization have provided evidence that the dominant and non-dominant hemisphere-arm systems are specialized for controlling different movement parameters and that hemispheric specialization may be reduced during normal aging. The purpose was to examine age-related differences in the movement structure for the dominant (right) and non-dominant (left) during goal-directed movements.