MoCo: Motor Complexity and Aging
Description: The United Nations declared 2021–2030 as the UN Decade of Healthy Aging to promote longer, healthier lives and change perceptions about aging. The initiative includes developing age-friendly cities and communities. However, understanding the challenges faced by older people is crucial. For instance, older adults struggle with walking while using smartphones, but the cause is unclear. The MoCo project aims to determine whether the complexity of motor tasks or cognitive decline with age affects the ability to perform dual tasks. In older adults, combining cognitive and motor tasks often leads to reduced performance in both. For example, in a recent cycling experiment, we showed that older adults' cycling skills worsened under dual-task conditions. Yet, the MoCo project focuses on increased motor complexity without increased cognitive demands. Cerebellar-dependent tasks, which are resilient to aging, are suitable for this purpose. Previous research from our group found that cerebellar motor functions like grip-force coupling and rhythm tasks are not affected by aging. Therefore, the MoCo project aims to investigate tasks that are complex but have limited cognitive demands, challenging the notion that aging universally impairs abilities.
Funder: Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Funding type: grant
Funder scheme: FWO research project (including WEAVE projects)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Investigators: Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry, Jeremie Gaveau
Institution: FWO
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: G013426N
OpenAlex ID: G3864034258