Motor Learning and Movement Performance: Older Versus Younger Adults

introduction: motor skills play an important role during life span, and older adults need to learnor relearn these skills. the purpose of this study was to investigate how aging affects inductionof improved movement performance by motor training. methods: serial reaction time test (srtt) was used to assess movement performance during8 blocks of motor training. participants were tested in two separate dates, 48 hours apart. firstsession included 8 blocks of training (blocks 1-8) and second session comprised 2 blocks (blocks9, 10). results: analyses of data showed that reaction times in both online and offline learning weresignificantly shorter in older adults compared to younger adults (p<0.001). young adultsdemonstrated both online and offline learning (p<0.001), but older adults only showed onlinelearning (p<0.001) without offline learning (p=0.24). discussion: the result of the current study provides evidence that the healthy older adults areable to improve their performance with practice and learn motor skill successfully in the formof online learning.