Proactive motor control within and between hands: Effects of age, motor set, and cue type

Several studies have reported that proactive motor control in a cued four-finger choice reaction task proceeds more efficiently with a 2-hands motor set (two fingers on each hand) than with a 1-hand motor set (four fingers on one hand). According to the Grouping Model, this is because the 2-hands motor set recruits distinct left and right hand representations located in separate cerebral hemispheres, whereas the 1-hand motor set recruits partially overlapping neural areas grouped together in one hemisphere. The latter neural organization increases neuromotor noise, thereby complicating proactive motor selection. The present study examined the effect of older age on the 2-hands motor selection advantage. A group of young and a group of older adults performed two proactive motor tasks—the procue task and the anticue task—with two motor sets: a 2-hands and 1-hand set. Predictive cues preceded the target signal at five different time intervals (100–850 ms), allowing advance selection of 2 out of 4 fingers. Older adults showed longer reaction times and smaller cueing benefits compared to younger adults. Overall, cueing benefits were greater, and accrued faster, with the 2-hands than with the 1-hand motor set, reflecting the beneficial impact of the neuroanatomical hand distinction. Importantly, the 2-hands advantage was substantially greater in the older age group, suggesting that the hand distinction might abate age-related neural dedifferentiation. These findings highlight the impact of cortical representational distinctiveness in proactive motor control, especially in older age.