age-related attenuation of dominant hand superiority与年龄相关的衰减优势手的优势.pdfVIP

Age-Related Attenuation of Dominant Hand Superiority 1 1,2 1 3 1 Tobias Kalisch , Claudia Wilimzig , Nadine Kleibel , Martin Tegenthoff , Hubert R. Dinse * 1 Institute for Neuroinformatics, Neural Plasticity Lab, Department of Theoretical Biology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany, 2 California Institute of Technology, Division of Biology, Pasadena, California, United States of America, 3 Department of Neurology, BG-Kliniken Bergmannsheil, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany Background. The decline of motor performance of the human hand-arm system with age is well-documented. While dominant hand performance is superior to that of the non-dominant hand in young individuals, little is known of possible age-related changes in hand dominance. We investigated age-related alterations of hand dominance in 20 to 90 year old subjects. All subjects were unambiguously right-handed according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. In Experiment 1, motor performance for aiming, postural tremor, precision of arm-hand movement, speed of arm-hand movement, and wrist-finger speed tasks were tested. In Experiment 2, accelerometer-sensors were used to obtain objective records of hand use in everyday activities. Principal Findings. Our data confirm previous findings of a general task-dependent decline in motor performance with age. Analysis of the relationship between right/left-hand performances using a laterality index showed a loss of right hand dominance with advancing age. The clear right-hand advantage present at younger ages changed to a more balanced performance in advanced age. This shift was due to a more pronounced age-related decline of right hand performance. Accelerometer-sensor measurements supported these findings by demonstrating that the frequency