Not fleeting but lasting: Limited influence of aging on implicit adaptative motor learning and its short-term retention

Abstract

SummaryIn motor adaptation, learning is thought to rely on a combination of several processes. Two of these are implicit learning (incidental updating of the sensory prediction error) and explicit learning (intentional adjustment to reduce target error). The explicit component is thought to be fast adapting, while the implicit one is slow. The dynamic integration of these components can lead to an adaptation rebound, called spontaneous recovery: the trace of a first, longer learned adaptation reappears after it is extinguished by a shorter period of de-adaptation. The slow implicit process is still decaying from the first adaptation, resulting in the before mentioned adaptation rebound. Trewartha et al. (2014) found that older adults show less spontaneous recovery than their younger controls, indicating impairments in implicit learning. This disagrees with evidence suggesting that the implicit component and its retention does not decline with aging.To clarify this discrepancy, we performed a conceptual replication of that result. Twenty-eight healthy young and 20 healthy older adults learned to adapt to a forcefield perturbation in a paradigm known to elicit spontaneous recovery. Both groups adapted equally well to the perturbation. Implicit adaptation of the older subjects was indistinguishable from their younger counterparts. In addition, our conceptual replication failed to reproduce the result of Trewartha et al. (2014) and found that the spontaneous recovery was also similar across groups. Our results reconcile previous studies by showing that both spontaneous recovery and implicit adaptation are unaffected by aging.