Motor practice in a force modulation task in young and middle-aged adults

Training slopes were similar for YA and OA, with only a trend for differences in performance level. Both age groups revealed decreasing activations with practice in frontal and parietal regions as well as in the cerebellum. Particularly, the hippocampus was activated in initial trials, but activity immediately decreased with practice. Increase in activation during practice was found only for YA in occipital cortex, cingulate cortex, and thalamus. After practice, OA revealed a pattern similar to the one that YA showed before practice. Described differences between YA and OA in neural activation related to motor practice may indicate compensational mechanisms in OA to enable similar learning slopes as in YA.