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Quantitative assessments of position sense are essential for the investigation of proprioception, as well as for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment planning for patients with somatosensory deficits. Despite the development and use of various paradigms and robotic tools, their clinimetric properties are often poorly evaluated and reported. A proper evaluation of the latter is essential to compare results between different studies and to identify the influence of possible confounds on outcome measures. The aim of the present study was to perform a comprehensive evaluation of a rapid robotic assessment of wrist proprioception using a passive gauge position matching task. Thirty-two healthy subjects undertook six test-retests of proprioception of the right wrist on two different days. The constant error (CE) was 0.87?, the absolute error (AE) was 5.87°, the variable error (VE) was 4.59° and the total variability (E) was 6.83° in average for the angles presented in the range from 10° to 30°. The intraclass correlation analysis provided an excellent reliability for CE (0.75), good reliability for AE (0.68) and E (0.68), and fair reliability for VE (0.54). Tripling the assessment length had negligible effects on the reliabilities. Additional analysis revealed significant trends of larger overestimation (constant errors), as well as larger absolute and variable errors with increased flexion angles. No proprioceptive learning occurred, despite increased familiarity with the task, which was reflected in significantly decreased assessment duration by 30%. In conclusion, the proposed automated assessment can provide sensitive and reliable information on proprioceptive function of the wrist with an administration time of around 2.5 min, demonstrating the potential for its application in research or clinical settings. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of reporting the complete set of errors (CE, AE, VE, and E) in a matching experiment for the identification of trends and subsequent interpretation of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses on the study of the possibility that an older age people improves in their compensatory stepping responses that are commonly caused by falling or due to trips and slips. The use of postural perturbation task can help improve the imbalance. It found out that adult were capable of reactive and predictive adaptations in gait in which authors conducting familiarization of the trials.

Abstract Introduction Vision of the human body has been shown to be key in eliciting sexual desire. However, whether the visual pattern characterizing sexual desire is different in women and men is still unclear. Aim To investigate the effect of gender on visual patterns triggered by an identical set of stimuli depicting attractive heterosexual couples. Methods Heterosexual women and men (n = 106) were tested on a picture-viewing task associated with eye tracking. The context of sexual desire was activated by asking the participant whether they perceived such desire while looking at sensual pictures of heterosexual couples. Data were analyzed using mixed-subject design analyses of variance. Main Outcome Measure Fixation durations were used to investigate visual patterns. 2 areas of interest were created to investigate visual patterns (face vs body area). Results Results showed longer fixations on body rather than face areas irrespective of participant gender. Moreover, all participants looked longer at women's than men's bodies and at the faces of the opposite sex. Clinical Implications These findings shed light on the automatic processes underlying sexual desire, which has the potential to improve the care of patients suffering from sexual disorders by optimizing interventions. Strengths & Limitations The strengths of this study are the use of an eye-tracking paradigm, the dissociation between 2 fixation areas (ie, face and body), and the use of an identical set of stimuli allowing an accurate between-gender comparison of the visual pattern. The limitations are the small sample size, the use of healthy heterosexual individuals, and the absence of measures of sexual arousal and genital response. Conclusions These findings confirm the association between the human body and sexual desire. They also reveal the unique attentional attractiveness of woman's bodies across genders. Bolmont M, Bianchi-Demicheli F, Boisgontier MP, et al. The Woman's Body (Not the Man's One) Is Used to Evaluate Sexual Desire: An Eye-Tracking Study of Automatic Visual Attention. J Sex Med 2019;16:195–202. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why people with lower levels of educational attainment have poorer mental health than people with higher levels can partly be explained by financial circumstances. However, whether behavioral factors can further explain this association remains unclear. Here, we examined the extent to which physical activity mediates the effect of education on mental health trajectories in later life. Data from 54,818 adults 50 years of age or older (55 % women) included in the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were analyzed using longitudinal mediation and growth curve models to estimate the mediating role of physical activity (baseline and change) in the association between education and mental health trajectories. Education and physical activity were self-reported. Mental health was derived from depressive symptoms and well-being, which were measured by validated scales. Lower education was associated with lower levels and steeper declines in physical activity over time, which predicted greater increases in depressive symptoms and greater decreases in well-being. In other words, education affected mental health through both levels and trajectories of physical activity. Physical activity explained 26.8 % of the variance in depressive symptoms and 24.4 % in well-being, controlling for the socioeconomic path (i.e., wealth and occupation). These results suggest that physical activity is an important factor in explaining the association between low educational attainment and poor mental health trajectories in adults aged 50 years and older. • Lower education attainment is associated with lower physical activity. • Lower physical activity is associated with greater increases in depressive symptoms. • Lower physical activity is associated with greater decreases in well-being. • Physical activity mediates the association between education and mental health. • Longitudinal, cross-national study including 54,818 adults aged 50 years and older [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we investigated whether visual information mediates a proprioceptive illusion effect induced by muscle tendon vibration in manual aiming. Visual information was gradually degraded from a situation in which the targets were present and participants (n = 20; 22.3 ± 2.7 years) were permitted to make saccadic eye movements to designated target positions, to a condition in which the targets were not visible and participants were required to perform cyclical aiming while fixating a point between the two target positions. Local tendon vibration applied to the right wrist extensor muscles induced an illusory reduction of 15% in hand movement amplitude. This effect was greater in the fixation than in the saccade condition. Both anticipatory control and proprioceptive feedback are proposed to contribute to the observed effects. The primary saccade amplitude was also reduced by almost 4% when muscle tendon vibration was locally applied to the wrist. These results confirm a tight link between eye movements and manual perception and action. Moreover, the impact of the proprioceptive illusion on the ocular system indicates that the interaction between systems is bidirectional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study age-related differences in neural activation during motor learning, functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired from 25 young (mean 21.5-year old) and 18 older adults (mean 68.6-year old) while performing a bimanual coordination task before (pretest) and after (posttest) a 2-week training intervention on the task. We studied whether task-related brain activity and training-induced brain activation changes differed between age groups, particularly with respect to the hyperactivation typically observed in older adults. Findings revealed that older adults showed lower performance levels than younger adults but similar learning capability. At the cerebral level, the task-related hyperactivation in parietofrontal areas and underactivation in subcortical areas observed in older adults were not differentially modulated by the training intervention. However, brain activity related to task planning and execution decreased from pretest to posttest in temporo-parieto-frontal areas and subcortical areas in both age groups, suggesting similar processes of enhanced activation efficiency with advanced skill level. Furthermore, older adults who displayed higher activity in prefrontal regions at pretest demonstrated larger training-induced performance gains. In conclusion, in spite of prominent age-related brain activation differences during movement planning and execution, the mechanisms of learning-related reduction of brain activation appear to be similar in both groups. Importantly, cerebral activity during early learning can differentially predict the amplitude of the training-induced performance benefit between young and older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives With regard to the pivotal role of physical activity (PA) in health protection, understanding how individuals maintain regular PA despite ubiquitous opportunities to adopt behaviors minimizing energetic costs (BMEC) appears crucial. The purpose of the present research was to test whether BMEC primes act as temptations and activate PA goals in successful exercisers. Design Within and between-subjects experiments. Methods Students in sports science (Experiment 1; N = 46) and individuals with high value of PA goals and low versus high PA levels (Experiment 2; N = 28) performed a primed-lexical decision task. Results Experiment 1 revealed that BMEC primes facilitated the recognition of PA-related words, whereas PA primes did not facilitate the recognition of words related to BMEC. Experiment 2 showed that this facilitative effect was specific to individuals who were successful in reaching their PA goals. Conclusions BMEC act as temptations that automatically activate the representation of PA goals in individual who manage to maintain regular PA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical activity and cognitive functioning are strongly intertwined. However, the causal relationships underlying this association are still unclear. Physical activity can enhance brain functions, but healthy cognition may also promote engagement in physical activity. Here, we assessed the bidirectional relationships between physical activity and general cognitive functioning using Latent Heritable Confounder Mendelian Randomization (LHC-MR). Association data were drawn from two large-scale genome-wide association studies (UK Biobank and COGENT) on accelerometer-measured moderate, vigorous, and average physical activity (N = 91,084) and cognitive functioning (N = 257,841). After Bonferroni correction, we observed significant LHC-MR associations suggesting that increased fraction of both moderate (b = 0.32, CI95% = [0.17,0.47], P = 2.89e − 05) and vigorous physical activity (b = 0.22, CI95% = [0.06,0.37], P = 0.007) lead to increased cognitive functioning. In contrast, we found no evidence of a causal effect of average physical activity on cognitive functioning, and no evidence of a reverse causal effect (cognitive functioning on any physical activity measures). These findings provide new evidence supporting a beneficial role of moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on cognitive functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Physical activity has been associated with better cognitive function and better sleep quality. Yet, whether the beneficial effect of physical activity on cognitive function can be explained by an indirect pathway involving better sleep quality is unclear. Objective: To investigate whether sleep quality mediates the association between physical activity and cognitive function in adults 50 years of age or older. Methods: 86,541 community-dwelling European adults were included in the study. Physical activity and sleep quality were self-reported. Indicators of cognitive function (immediate recall, delayed recall, verbal fluency) were assessed using objective tests. All measures were collected six times between 2004 and 2017. The mediation was tested using multilevel mediation analyses. Results: Results showed that self-reported physical activity was associated with better self-reported sleep quality, which was associated with better performance in all three indicators of cognitive function, demonstrating an indirect effect of physical activity on cognitive function through sleep quality. The mediating effect of sleep quality accounted for 0.41%, 1.46%, and 8.88% of the total association of physical activity with verbal fluency, immediate recall, and delayed recall, respectively. Conclusion: These findings suggest that self-reported sleep quality partly mediates the association between self-reported physical activity and cognitive function. These results need to be confirmed by device-based data of physical activity and sleep quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reaching for an object in space forms the basis for many activities of daily living and is important in rehabilitation after stroke and in other neurological and orthopedic conditions. It has been the object of motor control and neuroscience research for over a century, but studies often constrain movement to eliminate the effect of gravity or reduce the degrees of freedom. In some studies, aging has been shown to reduce target accuracy, with a mechanism suggested to be impaired corrective movements. We sought to explore how such changes in accuracy relate to changes in finger, shoulder and elbow movements during performance of reaching movements with the normal effects of gravity, unconstrained hand movement, and stable target locations. Three-dimensional kinematic data and electromyography were collected in 14 young (25 ± 6 years) and 10 older adults (68 ± 3 years) during second-long reaches to 3 targets aligned vertically in front of the participants. Older adults took longer to initiate a movement than the young adults and were more variable and inaccurate in their initial and final movements. Target height had greater effect on trajectory curvature variability in older than young adults, with angle variability relative to target position being greater in older adults around the time of peak speed. There were significant age-related differences in use of the multiple degrees of freedom of the upper extremity, with less variability in shoulder abduction in the older group. Muscle activation patterns were similar, except for a higher biceps-triceps co-contraction and tonic levels of some proximal muscle activation. These results show an age-related deficit in the motor planning and online correction of reaching movements against a predictable force (i.e., gravity) when it is not compensated by mechanical support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Inhibition is accountable for the age-related differences in motor control. [•] Age-related changes in the ability to modulate inhibition can be monitored with TMS. [•] Organization of white and grey matter influences inhibitory functions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Previous literature has primarily viewed physical effort as an aversive experience. However, recent research suggests that effort can also be valued positively. These differences in approach and avoidance tendencies toward physical effort may play a key role in the self-regulation of physical activity behaviors. The aim of this study was to develop a scale that measures these tendencies and contributes to a better understanding of physical effort and how it affects behavior. The Physical Effort Scale (PES) was developed in Study 1 based on expert evaluations (n = 9) and cognitive interviews (n = 10). In Study 2 (n = 680, 69% female), content validity and dimensional structure were examined using principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Item reduction was conducted using item response theory. Preliminary construct validity was explored using regression. Study 3 (n = 297, 71% female) was used to validate dimensional structure, internal consistency, and construct validity, and to assess test-retest reliability. In Study 1, 44 items were rated for content validity, of which 18 were selected and refined based on cognitive interviews. Analyses from Study 2 allowed reducing the scale to 8 items with a two-dimension structure: tendency to approach (n = 4) and to avoid physical effort (n = 4). The two subscales showed high internal consistency (α = 0.897 for the approach dimension and 0.913 for the avoidance dimension) and explained usual levels of physical activity, providing preliminary evidence of construct validity. Study 3 confirmed the two-dimension structure with high internal consistency (α = 0.907 and 0.916 for the approach and avoidance dimension, respectively) and revealed acceptable test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation >0.66). Patterns of associations with other constructs showed expected relationships, confirming the concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity of the scale. The PES is a valid and reliable measure of individual differences in the valuation of physical effort. This scale can assess the propensity to engage in physically demanding tasks in non-clinical populations. The PES and its manual are available in the Supplementary Material. • Effort valuation plays a key role in the regulation of physical activity. • There are individual differences in the valuation of physical effort. • Developing a scale to capture individual differences in physical effort valuation is warranted. • The Physical Activity Scale (PES) is designed to capture individual differences in tendencies to approach and avoid physical effort. • Psychometric properties of the PES are sound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributions from premotor and supplementary motor areas to reaching behavior in aging humans are not well understood. The objective of these experiments was to examine effects of perturbations to specific cortical areas on the control of unconstrained reaches against gravity by younger and older adults. Double-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to scalp locations targeting primary motor cortex (M1), dorsal premotor area (PMA), supplementary motor area (SMA), or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Stimulation was intended to perturb ongoing activity in the targeted cortical region before or after a visual cue to initiate moderately paced reaches to one of three vertical target locations. Regional effects were observed in movement amplitude both early and late in the reach. Perturbation of PMA increased reach distance before the time of peak velocity to a greater extent than all other regions. Reaches showed greater deviation from a straight-line path around the time of peak velocity and greater overall curvature with perturbation of PMA and M1 relative to SMA and DLPFC. The perturbation increased positional variability of the reach path at the time of peak velocity and the time elapsing after peak velocity. Although perturbations had stronger effects on reaches by younger subjects, this group exhibited less reach path variability at the time of peak velocity and required less time to adjust the movement trajectory thereafter. These findings support the role of PMA in visually guided reaching and suggest an age-related change in sensorimotor processing, possibly due to a loss of cortical inhibitory control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pairing an acute bout of lower-limb cycling exercise with skilled motor practice enhances acquisition and learning. However, it is not known whether an acute bout of exercise enhances a specific form of motor learning, namely motor adaptation, and if subsequent inter-limb transfer of this adaptation is enhanced. Seventeen young healthy participants performed a bout of cycling exercise and rest, on separate days, prior to right-arm reaching movements to visual targets under 45° rotated feedback of arm position (acquisition), followed by an immediate test of inter-limb transfer with the untrained left arm. After a 24-h delay, participants returned for a no-exercise retention test using the right and left arm with the same rotated visual feedback as acquisition. Results demonstrated that exercise enhanced right-arm adaptation during the acquisition and retention phases, and transiently enhanced aspects of inter-limb transfer, irrespective of usual levels of physical activity. Specifically, exercise enhanced movement accuracy, decreased reaction and movement time during acquisition, and increased accuracy during retention. Exercise shortened reaction time during the inter-limb transfer test immediately after right-arm acquisition but did not influence left-arm performance assessed at retention. These results indicate that an acute bout of exercise before practice enhances right-arm visuomotor adaptation (acquisition) and learning, and decreases reaction time during untrained left arm performance. The current results may have implications for the prescription of exercise protocols to enhance motor adaptation for healthy individuals and in clinical populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Why do individuals fail to exercise regularly despite knowledge of the risks associated with physical inactivity? Automatic processes regulating exercise behaviors may partly explain this paradox. Yet, these processes have only been investigated with behavioral outcomes (i.e., based on reaction times). Here, using electroencephalography, we investigated the cortical activity underlying automatic approach and avoidance tendencies toward stimuli depicting physical activity and sedentary behaviors in 29 young adults who were physically active or physically inactive but with the intention of becoming physically active. Behavioral results showed faster reactions when approaching physical activity compared to sedentary behaviors and when avoiding sedentary behaviors compared to physical activity. These faster reactions were more pronounced in physically active individuals and were associated with changes during sensory integration (earlier onset latency and larger positive deflection of the stimulus-locked lateralized readiness potentials) but not during motor preparation (no effect on the response-locked lateralized readiness potentials). Faster reactions when avoiding sedentary behaviors compared to physical activity were also associated with higher conflict monitoring (larger early and late N1 event-related potentials) and higher inhibition (larger N2 event-related potentials), irrespective of the usual level of physical activity. These results suggest that additional cortical resources were required to counteract an attraction to sedentary behaviors. Data and Materials [ https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1169140 ]. Preprint [ https://doi.org/10.1101/277988 ]. Highlights • Individuals are slower at approaching sedentary than physical activity stimuli. • Individuals are quicker at avoiding sedentary than physical activity stimuli. • These effects are particularly pronounced in physically active individuals. • Avoiding sedentary behaviors is associated with high levels of conflict monitoring and inhibition. • Additional brain resources are required to escape a general attraction toward sedentary behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans can navigate through challenging environments (e.g., cluttered or uneven terrains) by modifying their preferred gait pattern (e.g., step length, step width, or speed). Growing behavioral and neuroimaging evidence suggests that the ability to modify preferred step patterns requires the recruitment of cognitive resources. In children, it is argued that prolonged development of complex gait is related to the ongoing development of involved brain regions, but this has not been directly investigated yet. Here, we aimed to elucidate the relationship between structural brain properties and complex gait in youth aged 9-18 years. We used volumetric analyses of cortical grey matter (GM) and whole-brain voxelwise statistical analyses of white matter (WM), and utilized a treadmill-based precision stepping task to investigate complex gait. Moreover, precision stepping was performed on step targets which were either unperturbed or perturbed (i.e., unexpectedly shifting to a new location). Our main findings revealed that larger unperturbed precision step error was associated with decreased WM microstructural organization of tracts that are particularly associated with attentional and visual processing functions. These results strengthen the hypothesis that precision stepping on unperturbed step targets is driven by cortical processes. In contrast, no significant correlations were found between perturbed precision stepping and cortical structures, indicating that other (neural) mechanisms may be more important for this type of stepping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For successful motor control, the central nervous system is required to combine information from the environment and the current body state, which is provided by vision and proprioception respectively. We investigated the relative contribution of visual and proprioceptive information to upper limb motor control and the extent to which structural brain measures predict this performance in youth ( n = 40; age range 9-18 years). Participants performed a manual tracking task, adopting in-phase and anti-phase coordination modes. Results showed that, in contrast to older participants, younger participants performed the task with lower accuracy in general and poorer performance in anti-phase than in-phase modes. However, a proprioceptive advantage was found at all ages, that is, tracking accuracy was higher when proprioceptive information was available during both in- and anti-phase modes at all ages. The microstructural organization of interhemispheric connections between homologous dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, and the cortical thickness of the primary motor cortex were associated with sensory-specific accuracy of tracking performance. Overall, the findings suggest that manual tracking performance in youth does not only rely on brain regions involved in sensorimotor processing, but also on prefrontal regions involved in attention and working memory. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5628-5647, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many activities of daily living require moving both hands in an organized manner in space and time. Therefore, understanding the impact of aging on bimanual coordination is essential for prolonging functional independence and well-being in older adults. Here we investigated the behavioral and neural determinants of bimanual coordination in aging. The studies surveyed in this review reveal that aging is associated with cortical hyper-activity (but also subcortical hypo-activity) during performance of bimanual tasks. In addition to changes in activation in local areas, the interaction between distributed brain areas also exhibits age-related effects, i.e., functional connectivity is increased in the resting brain as well as during task performance. The mechanisms and triggers underlying these functional activation and connectivity changes remain to be investigated. This requires further research investment into the detailed study of interactions between brain structure, function and connectivity. This will also provide the foundation for interventional research programs towards preservation of brain health and behavioral performance by maximizing neuroplasticity potential in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of affective responses to effort in the regulation of physical activity behavior is widely accepted. Yet, to investigate these affective responses during physical activity, most studies used direct self-reported measures that are prone to biases (e.g., social desirability, ability to introspect). To reduce these biases, we used an indirect measure (i.e., an affect misattribution procedure) that assessed the implicit affective valence elicited by physical effort in 42 healthy young adults. Specifically, participants rated the pleasantness of neutral human faces presented in a virtual environment while cycling at different intensities. We used this rating as an indicator of implicit affective valence. Results showed that higher perceived effort was associated with lower pleasantness ratings of neutral faces, with this effect only emerging at moderate-to-high levels of perceived effort. Further analyses showed that higher actual effort was also associated with lower pleasantness ratings of neutral faces. Overall, these findings suggest that higher levels of perceived effort are associated with decreased affective valence during physical activity. Finally, this study presents a new indirect measure of affective valence during physical activity. • Affective mechanisms are instrumental to the regulation of physical activity. • We developed an indirect self-reported measure of affective valence during physical activity. • In this task, participants rated the pleasantness of neutral faces at different levels of effort. • Higher perceived effort was associated with lower pleasantness ratings of neutral faces. • Affective responses during physical activity can be assessed using an indirect self-report measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor sleep quality and physical inactivity are known risk factors for depressive symptoms. Yet, whether these factors differently contribute to depressive symptoms and whether they interact with one another remains unclear. Here, we examined how sleep quality and physical activity influence depressive symptoms in 79,274 adults 50 years of age or older (52.4% women) from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) study. Sleep quality (poor vs. good), physical activity (inactive vs. active), and depressive symptoms (0 to 12 score) were repeatedly collected (7 waves of data collection) between 2004 and 2017. Results showed that sleep quality and physical activity were associated with depressive symptoms. Specifically, participants with poorer sleep quality reported more depressive symptoms than participants with better sleep quality (b = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.83-1.86, p < .001). Likewise, compared to physically active participants, physically inactive participants reported more depressive symptoms (b = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.42-0.45, p < .001). Moreover, sleep quality and physical activity showed an interactive association with depressive symptoms (b = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.13-0.20, p < .001). The negative association between poor sleep quality and higher depressive symptoms was stronger in physically inactive than active participants. These findings suggest that, in adults 50 years of age or older, both poor sleep quality and physical inactivity are related to an increase in depressive symptoms. Moreover, the detrimental association between poor sleep quality and depressive symptoms is amplified in physically inactive individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age has a clear impact on one's ability to make accurate goal-directed aiming movements. Older adults seem to plan slower and shorter-ranged initial pulses towards the target, and rely more on sensory feedback to ensure endpoint accuracy. Despite the fact that these age-related changes in manual aiming have been observed consistently, the underlying mechanism remains speculative. In an attempt to isolate four commonly suggested underlying factors, young and older adults were instructed to make discrete aiming movements under varying speed and accuracy constraints. Results showed that older adults were physically able to produce fast primary submovements and that they demonstrated similar movement- programming capacities as young adults. On the other hand, considerable evidence was found supporting a decreased visual feedback- processing efficiency and the implementation of a play- it- safe strategy in older age. In conclusion, a combination of the latter two factors seems to underlie the age-related changes in manual aiming behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging impacts on our ability to perform goal-directed aiming movements. Older adults generally make slower and shorter initial impulses towards the end target, and therefore require more time for corrections in the final movement stage. Recent studies however suggest that a physically active lifestyle may attenuate these age-related changes. Also, it remains unclear whether eye-movement control exhibits a similar pattern of adaptation in older adults. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to describe how age and physical activity level impact eye-hand coordination during discrete manual aiming. Young and older participants were divided into physically active and sedentary subgroups, and performed discrete aiming movements while hand and eye movements were recorded. Secondly, to determine whether older adults depend more on vision during aiming, the task was repeated without visual feedback. The results revealed that the typical age-related hand movement adaptations were not only observed in older, but also in sedentary young participants. Older and sedentary young participants also spent more hand movement time after the eyes fixated the end target. This finding does not necessarily reflect an augmented reliance on vision, as all groups showed similar aiming errors when visual feedback was removed. In conclusion, both age and physical activity level clearly impacted eye-hand coordination during discrete manual aiming. This adapted coordination pattern seems to be caused by other factors than an increased reliance on vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence suggests humans have an automatic attraction to effort minimization. Yet, how this attraction is associated with response inhibition is still unclear. Here, we used go/no-go tasks to capture inhibitory control in response to stimuli depicting physical activity versus physical inactivity in 59 healthy young individuals. Higher commission errors (i.e., failure to refrain a response to a "no-go" stimulus) indicated lower inhibitory control. Based on the energetic cost minimization theory, we hypothesized that participants would exhibit higher commission errors when responding to physical inactivity stimuli rather than physical activity stimuli. Mixed effects models showed that, compared to physical activity stimuli, participants exhibited higher commission errors when responding to stimuli depicting physical inactivity (odds ratio = 1.59, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.18 to 2.16, p =.003). These results suggest that physical inactivity stimuli might require high response inhibition. This study lends support for the hypothesis that an attraction to effort minimization might affect inhibitory processes in the presence of stimuli related to this minimization. The study pre-registration form can be found at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RKYHB. • Compared to physical activity stimuli, participants are slower to go to physical inactivity stimuli. • Participants exhibit higher commission errors for physical inactivity stimuli. • Physical inactivity stimuli may attract attention and disrupt response inhibition. • Physical inactivity stimuli might increase demand on the inhibitory control system. • Theories should consider the automatic attraction toward physical inactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor neighborhood conditions are associated with lower levels of physical activity for older adults but socio-ecological models posit that physical activity depends on both environmental and individual factors. Older adults' ability to overcome environmental barriers to physical activity may partially rely on cognitive resources. However, evidence on the moderating role of these cognitive resources in the associations between environmental barriers and physical activity is still lacking. We analyzed cross-national and longitudinal data on 28,393 adults aged 50 to 96 years as part of the SHARE. Lack of access to services and neighborhood nuisances were used as indicators of poor neighborhood conditions. Delayed recall and verbal fluency were used as indicators of cognitive resources. Confounder-adjusted generalized estimation equations were conducted to test associations between neighborhood conditions and self-reported moderate physical activity, as well as the moderating role of cognitive resources. Results showed that poor neighborhood conditions reduced the odds of engagement in physical activity. Cognitive resources robustly reduced the adverse influence of poor neighborhood conditions on physical activity. Participants with lower cognitive resource scores showed lower odds of engaging in physical activity when neighborhood conditions were poorer, whereas these conditions were not related to this engagement for participants with higher cognitive resource scores. These findings suggest that cognitive resources can temper the detrimental effect of poor neighborhood conditions on physical activity. Public policies should target both individual and environmental factors to tackle the current pandemic of physical inactivity more comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In the chronic phase after a stroke, limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) initially plateau before steadily increasing. The benefits of prestroke physical activity on these limitations remain unclear. To clarify this relationship, the effect of physical activity on the long-term evolution of functional limitations in a cohort of people with stroke compared to a cohort of matched adults without stroke was examined., Methods: Longitudinal data from 2143 people with stroke and 10,717 adults without stroke aged 50 years and older were drawn from a prospective cohort study based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004-2022; 8 data collection waves). Physical activity was assessed in the prestroke wave. Functional limitations were assessed in the poststroke waves. Each person with stroke was matched with 5 adults without stroke who had similar propensity scores computed on the basis of key covariates, including baseline age, sex, body mass index, limitations in ADLs and IADLs, chronic conditions, and country of residence, before any of the participants from either cohort had experienced a stroke., Results: Results showed an interaction between stroke status and physical activity on ADL limitations (b = -0.076; 95% CI = -0.142 to -0.011), with the effect of physical activity being stronger in people with stroke (b = -0.345; 95% CI = -0.438 to -0.252) than in adults without stroke (b = -0.269; 95% CI = -0.269 to -0.241)., Conclusion: The beneficial effect of prestroke physical activity on ADL limitations after stroke is stronger than its effect in matched adults without stroke followed for a similar number of years., Impact: Physical activity, an intervention within the physical therapist's scope of practice, is effective in reducing the risk of functional dependence after stroke. Moreover, prestroke levels of physical activity can inform the prognosis of functional dependence in people with stroke., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Physical Therapy Association.)

The present study tested whether energy-minimizing behaviors evoke reward-related brain activity that promotes the repetition of these behaviors via reinforcement learning processes. Fifty-eight healthy young adults in a standing position performed a task where they could earn a reward either by sitting down or squatting while undergoing electroencephalographic (EEG) recording. Reward-prediction errors were quantified as the amplitude of the EEG-derived reward positivity. Results showed that reward positivity was larger on reward versus no reward trials, confirming the validity of our paradigm to measure evoked reward-related brain activity. However, results showed no evidence that sitting (versus standing and squatting) trials led to larger reward positivity. Moreover, we found no evidence suggesting that this effect was moderated by typical physical activity, physical activity on the day of the study, or energy expenditure during the experiment. However, at the behavioral level, results showed that the probability of choosing the stimulus more likely to lead to sitting than standing increased as the number of trials increased. In addition, results revealed that the probability of changing the selected stimulus was higher when the previous trial was a stand trial relative to a sit trial. In sum, neural results showed no evidence supporting the theory that opportunities to minimize energy expenditure are rewarding. However, behavioral findings suggested participants tend to choose the less effortful behavioral alternative and were therefore consistent with the theory of effort minimization (TEMPA)., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Higher levels of academic education are associated with higher levels of physical activity throughout the lifespan. However, the mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. Cognitive functioning is a potential mediator of this association because higher levels of education are associated with better cognitive function, which is related to greater engagement in physical activity. Here, we used large-scale longitudinal data from 105,939 adults 50 years of age or older (55% women) from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe to investigate whether initial status and change in cognitive function mediate the relationship between education and change in physical activity. Education and physical activity were self-reported. Cognitive function was assessed based on delayed recall and verbal fluency. Academic education was assessed at the first measurement occasion. The other measures were collected seven times between 2004 and 2019. The mediating role of cognitive function was tested using longitudinal mediation analyses combined with growth curve models. We found that higher levels of education were associated with higher levels and slower decreases in cognitive function, which in turn predicted a lower decrease in physical activity across time. These results support the presence of an indirect effect of education on physical activity trajectories by affecting the intercept and slope of cognitive function. Specifically, these findings suggest that both the initial status and change in cognitive function mediate the association between academic education and change in physical activity. In addition, results revealed that, across the aging process, differences in cognitive function and physical activity widen between the low and high educated. In other words, this study demonstrates the long-lasting effect of education on cognitive function and physical activity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Adverse childhood experiences, depressive symptoms, and functional dependence are interrelated. However, the mechanisms underlying these associations remain unclear. The authors investigated the potential of depressive symptoms to mediate the effect of adverse childhood experiences on functional dependence in older age and whether physical activity moderated this mediation., Method: Data from 25,775 adults aged 62 (9) years from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe were used in adjusted linear mixed-effects models to test whether depressive symptoms mediated the associations between adverse childhood experiences and functional dependence in activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL (IADL) and whether physical activity moderated these mediations., Results: The results showed a graded association between the number of adverse childhood experiences (0 vs 1 and 0 vs ≥2) and the number of functional limitations in both ADL (bs = 0.040 and 0.067) and IADL (bs = 0.046 and 0.076). These associations were mediated by depressive symptoms. Physical activity reduced the effect of adverse childhood experiences on depressive symptoms (bs = -0.179 and -0.515) and tempered the effect of depressive symptoms on functional dependence both in ADL (b = -0.073) and IADL (b = -0.100). As a result of these reductions, the effect of adverse childhood experiences and depressive symptoms on functional dependence in ADL (Ps > .081) and IADL (Ps > .528) was nonsignificant in physically active participants., Conclusions: These findings suggest that, after age 50, engaging in physical activity more than once a week protects functional independence from the detrimental effects of adverse childhood experiences and depression. In inactive individuals, the detrimental effects of adverse childhood experiences on functional dependence are mediated by depressive symptoms.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess whether cumulative disadvantage in childhood misfortune and adult-life socioeconomic conditions influence the risk of frailty in old age and whether welfare regimes influence these associations., Method: Data from 23,358 participants aged 50 years and older included in the longitudinal SHARE survey were used. Frailty was operationalized according to Fried's phenotype as presenting either weakness, shrinking, exhaustion, slowness, or low activity. Confounder-adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models were used to analyze associations of childhood misfortune and life-course socioeconomic conditions with frailty., Results: Childhood misfortune and poor adult-life socioeconomic conditions increased the odds of (pre-)frailty at older age. With aging, differences narrowed between categories of adverse childhood experiences (driven by Scandinavian welfare regime) and adverse childhood health experiences (driven by Eastern European welfare regime), but increased between categories of occupational position (driven by Bismarckian welfare regime)., Discussion: These findings suggest that childhood misfortune is linked to frailty in old age. Such a disadvantaged start in life does not seem to be compensated by a person's life-course socioeconomic trajectory, though certain types of welfare regimes affected this relationship. Apart from main occupational position, our findings do not support the cumulative dis/advantage theory, but rather show narrowing differences., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.)

Background: Early-life socioeconomic circumstances (SEC) are associated with health in old age. However, epidemiological evidences on the influence of these early-life risk factors on trajectories of healthy ageing are inconsistent, preventing drawing solid conclusion about their potential influence. Here, to fill this knowledge gap, we used a statistical approach adapted to estimating change over time and an outcome-wide epidemiology approach to investigate whether early-life SEC were associated with the level of and rate of decline of physical, cognitive and emotional functioning over time., Methods: We used data on more than 23 000 adults in older age from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, a 12-year large-scale longitudinal study with repeated measurements of multiple health indicators of the same participants over time (2004 -2015, assessments every 2 years). Confounder-adjusted linear growth curve models were used to examine the associations of early-life SEC with the evolution of muscle strength, lung function, cognitive function, depressive symptoms and well-being over time., Results: We consistently found an association between early-life SEC and the mean levels of all health indicators at age 63.5, with a critical role played by the cultural aspect of disadvantage. These associations were only partly explained by adult-life SEC factors. By contrast, evidences supporting an association between early-life SEC and the rate of change in health indicators were weak and inconsistent., Conclusions: Early-life SEC are associated with health in old age, but not with trajectories of healthy ageing. Conceptual models in life course research should consider the possibility of a limited influence of early-life SEC on healthy ageing trajectories., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

A recent theory contends that behaviors minimizing energetic cost are rewarding (Cheval et al., 2018). However, direct experimental evidence supporting this theory is lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated the effect of energy expenditure on reward-related brain activity in a pre-registered study. This preregistered study included thirty-one participants who were equipped with an electroencephalography (EEG) cap and performed a monetary incentive delay task. After attempting to quickly respond to a target, participants were given feedback instructing them to retrieve a token (reward condition) or to wait (no reward condition). In half of the rewarding trials, participants stood up to retrieve a token, thereby increasing energy expenditure. In the other half, participants just had to extend their arm to retrieve a token, thereby minimizing energy expenditure. The contingent negative variation event-related potential (ERP) component preceding the motor response was used as an indicator of reward pursuit. The reward positivity ERP component time-locked to feedback onset was used to determine reward valuation. Results showed that response time, contingent negative variation, and the reward positivity were not influenced by energy expenditure (remaining seated vs. standing up). This null effect of conditions was confirmed using equivalence tests. These results do not support the theory of energetic cost minimization but the equivalent effect of sitting and standing on reward-related brain activity is new knowledge that could contribute to shed light on the neural processes underlying the pandemic of physical inactivity., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The cerebellum appears to undergo late maturation in children and early decline at older age. Whether these age-related changes affect bimanual coordination performance remains unclear at best. Here, we identified the ages at which bimanual coordination performance stops improving and starts declining. In an independent cohort, we defined brain regions of interest involved in bimanual coordination using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used these regions of interest to investigate the extent to which the gray matter of cerebellar and other brain regions explains bimanual coordination performance from 10- to 80-year-olds. Results showed that bimanual coordination performance starts declining from the age of 40 years. In participants aged 10-20 years, cerebellar lobule VI was the only significant brain predictor of bimanual coordination performance. In participants aged 60-80 years, this cerebellar region, together with the primary sensorimotor cortex, formed a group of strongest predictors. These results from 2 independent samples (10-20 and 60-80 years) suggest that cerebellar lobule VI is critical for the development and preservation of bimanual coordination skills in children and older adults, respectively. In addition, post hoc analyses suggested that the primary motor cortex mediated the adverse effect of age on bimanual coordination performance in older adults., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)