Physical Activity Predicts Performance in an Unpracticed Bimanual Coordination Task.

Practice of a given physical activity is known to improve the motor skills related to this activity. However, whether unrelated skills are also improved is still unclear. To test the impact of physical activity on an unpracticed motor task, 26 young adults completed the international physical activity questionnaire and performed a bimanual coordination task they had never practiced before.

Alterations in brain white matter contributing to age-related slowing of task switching performance: The role of radial diffusivity and magnetization transfer ratio.

Successfully switching between tasks is critical in many daily activities. Age-related slowing of this switching behavior has been documented extensively, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we investigated the contribution of brain white matter changes associated with myelin alterations to age-related slowing of switching performance.

Cortical grey matter content is associated with both age and bimanual performance, but is not observed to mediate age-related behavioural decline.

Declines in both cortical grey matter and bimanual coordination performance are evident in healthy ageing. However, the relationship between ageing, bimanual performance, and grey matter loss remains unclear, particularly across the whole adult lifespan. Therefore, participants (N = 93, range 20-80 years) performed a complex Bimanual Tracking Task, and structural brain images were obtained using magnetic resonance imaging.

Subcortical volumetric changes across the adult lifespan: subregional thalamic atrophy accounts for age-related sensorimotor performance declines.

Even though declines in sensorimotor performance during healthy aging have been documented extensively, its underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we explored whether age-related subcortical atrophy plays a role in sensorimotor performance declines, and particularly during bimanual manipulative performance (Purdue Pegboard Test). The thalamus, putamen, caudate and pallidum of 91 participants across the adult lifespan (ages 20-79 years) were automatically segmented.

Aging effects on the resting state motor network and interlimb coordination.

Both increases and decreases in resting state functional connectivity have been previously observed within the motor network during aging. Moreover, the relationship between altered functional connectivity and age-related declines in bimanual coordination remains unclear. Here, we explored the developmental dynamics of the resting brain within a task-specific motor network in a sample of 128 healthy participants, aged 18-80 years.

Microstructural organization of corpus callosum projections to prefrontal cortex predicts bimanual motor learning.

The corpus callosum (CC) is the largest white matter tract in the brain. It enables interhemispheric communication, particularly with respect to bimanual coordination. Here, we use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in healthy humans to determine the extent to which structural organization of subregions within the CC would predict how well subjects learn a novel bimanual task.

Testing multiple coordination constraints with a novel bimanual visuomotor task.

The acquisition of a new bimanual skill depends on several motor coordination constraints. To date, coordination constraints have often been tested relatively independently of one another, particularly with respect to isofrequency and multifrequency rhythms. Here, we used a new paradigm to test the interaction of multiple coordination constraints.