Author(s): KRAFT, V.1, WANNER, P.2, ROIG, M.3,4, HERMSDÖRFER, J.1, STEIB, S.2, Institution: TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH, Country: GERMANY, Abstract-ID: 699

INTRODUCTION:
People across the lifespan regularly engage in motor practice to learn new, improve, or adapt skills in sports, activities of daily living, or rehabilitation settings. However, recent cross-sectional studies suggest a drastic drop in motor memory formation in the 50s (Coats et al., 2014) that have been associated with age-related brain changes (King et al., 2013). Early studies indicate impaired motor memory encoding with increasing age, whereas current data instead suggests deficits in overall performance during skill practice. Regarding the consolidation of motor memories, results are also ambiguous, which is why reliable conclusions are highly relevant. Therefore, this review addresses how motor memory formation declines in older adults (≥50 years) compared to younger populations. Specifically, we wanted to answer how old age affects motor memory (i) encoding and (ii) consolidation. Additionally, we aim to unravel the role of motor task nature, participants characteristics, retention interval, and sleep on age-related changes in motor memory formation.
METHODS:
We conducted a systematic literature search per PRISMA guidelines with a predefined list of keywords using the PECO (Population, Exposure, Comparator, Outcome) framework and boolean strategies in relevant databases, including MEDLINE (PubMed), Web of Science, SPORT Discuss, and PsycINFO. Two authors autonomously screened the retrieved records by examining the titles, abstracts and subsequently evaluating the full-text articles of those not considered out of scope. The same authors extracted data components from the included studies for calculating effect sizes and potential moderators, and the meta-analysis is currently being prepared.
RESULTS:
The comprehensive search across four electronic databases yielded 3211 records after removing duplicates. Screening these records resulted in 278 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Qualitative and preliminary results concerning the association of age and motor memory formation are mixed and demonstrate the influence of study design, motor task characteristics, and retention interval.
CONCLUSION:
With the extent of the literature identified in our search, we cannot only answer the central questions of how old age impacts encoding and consolidation but also illuminate the variability observed across various setups, motor learning tasks, retention intervals, and age ranges studied. While not only helping to explain some of the observed variability, our results can be relevant for providing tailored recommendations on approaching motor memory formation in different scenarios for older individuals.

Coats, R. O., Wilson, A. D., Snapp-Childs, W., Fath, A. J., & Bingham, G. P. (2014). The 50s cliff: Perceptuo-motor learning rates across the lifespan. PLoS ONE, 9(1).
King, B. R., Fogel, S. M., Albouy, G., & Doyon, J. (2013). Neural correlates of the age-related changes in motor sequencing learning and motor adaptation in older adults. FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE, 7, 142.