Does Motor Imagery Training Enhance Control of Movement in Older Adults?

University of British Columbia

Status

Not yet enrolling

Conditions

Healthy

Treatments

Other: Motor imagery training

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT05669131

MIT&ForceSteadiness

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is learn about motor imagery training (i.e. imagining a task) with healthy older adults. The main question this clinical trial aims to answer is:

• Will imagining a task improve control of force during an elbow flexion muscle contraction in healthy older adults?

Participants will:

Complete questionaries about general activity levels and ability to imagine tasks
Perform either motor imagery training or watch a documentary
Perform maximal and submaximal elbow flexion contractions

Researchers will compare the motor imagery training with the control group to see if control of force is improved in the motor imagery training group.

Full description

Motor imagery training could be beneficial in rehabilitative settings when participants are not physically capable of preforming a motor task or in injury prevention scenarios such as when multiple repetitions of a motor task should not be performed. If the effects of motor imagery training are favourable then they could have meaningful influence on the performance of steady movements in older adults who experience declines in force steadiness with age. Therefore, the first aim of this study will be to determine if one session of motor imagery training will influence corticospinal excitability in older adults and improve force steadiness during isometric elbow flexion contractions with the observed benefit being greater in females. The second aim of this study will be to determine if there is an associated change in oscillations in common synaptic input to motor neurons with a change in force steadiness.

Enrollment

60 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

65 to 90 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Healthy older adults aged 65 to 90 years old

Exclusion criteria

have had an injury or orthopaedic surgery to the arm or shoulder in the prior 6 months
are involved in high levels of upper-body strength training
have history of training in fine motor tasks (i.e., musicians)
have a history of MIT
have systemic diseases and/or nerve damage affecting neuromuscular function
have severe cognitive impairment
are unable to read or speak English fluently
are left hand dominant