JNP Micro Podcasts: Visual Strategy and Force-Steadiness in Older Adults

In this podcast Brittany Heintz Walters of Seattle University discusses the recently published research titled "Visual feedback and declines in attention are associated with altered visual strategy during a force-steadiness task in older adults." 

 

NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study contributes novel findings of age-related changes in visual strategy and associations with attentional deficits during hand motor tasks. Older adults used fewer saccades than young adults and with higher versus lower gain visual feedback during a force-steadiness task. A subset of older adults used an altered visual strategy when allocating attention across multiple tasks. Given that this subset demonstrated attentional deficits, the altered visual strategy could serve to indicate motor and/or cognitive impairments.

 

Article Citation:

Visual feedback and declines in attention are associated with altered visual strategy during a force-steadiness task in older adults

Brittany Heintz Walters, Wendy E. Huddleston, Kristian O’Connor, Jinsung Wang, Marie Hoeger Bement, and Kevin G. Keenan

Journal of Neurophysiology 2023 130:5, 1309-1320