Sensorimotor adaptation in young and elderly humans

Our brain's capacity for adaptation allows us to interact meaningfully with an ever-changing environment. Experimental evidence suggests that the time course of sensorimotor adaptation is preserved or only moderately degraded in old age, and that seniors benefit from a previous adaptive experience even more than younger subjects. However, experimental evidence suggests that sensorimotor adaptation seems to be associated with a higher computational load in the elderly. We discuss two possible explanations for this pattern of findings: Older adults may take longer to consolidate newly gained information into long-term motor memory, or they may have problems to utilize supplementary (e.g. cognitive) strategies. In any case, the age-related deficits were relatively mild. If these deficits are related to an increased computational load, it should be possible to reduce them by extended practice on adaptation tasks. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.