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Selective Maintenance of Motor Performance in Older Adults from Long-Lasting Sport Practice

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Title: Selective Maintenance of Motor Performance in Older Adults from Long-Lasting Sport Practice
Language: English
Authors: Dascal, Juliana Bayeux, Teixeira, Luis Augusto
Source: Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 2016 87(3):262-270.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 9
Publication Date: 2016
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Psychomotor Skills, Older Adults, Athletics, Quality of Life, Training, Skill Development, Maintenance, Racquet Sports, Exercise, Perceptual Motor Coordination, Aging (Individuals), Physical Fitness, Gerontology, Questionnaires, Statistical Analysis, Comparative Analysis, Age Differences
DOI: 10.1080/02701367.2016.1188195
ISSN: 0270-1367
Abstract: Purpose: Decline of motor performance in older individuals affects their quality of life. Understanding the contribution of sport-related training in advanced ages might help to attenuate motor performance decay as one gets older. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the extent to which long-lasting training in running or sport-specific skills during old age preserves motor performance in different motor tasks. Method: Older runners and tennis players with at least 10 years of training were assessed as were age-matched and young exercisers. Performance was evaluated for 6 motor tasks requiring different functions of sensorimotor control expected to decline with aging. Results: Analysis revealed that runners had increased aerobic fitness in comparison with the other older participants and that they presented similar performance to older exercisers in the motor tasks. Tennis players outperformed the other groups of older participants on coincident timing and simple reaction time and achieved similar performance to the young group on the timing task. Conclusions: These results suggest selective maintenance of task-specific processing through extensive practice of tennis-related motor skills in older adults.
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 35
Entry Date: 2016
Accession Number: EJ1111354
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0117576474;rqe01sep.16;2019Mar18.14:21;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0117576474-1">Selective Maintenance of Motor Performance in Older Adults From Long-Lasting Sport Practice. </title> <p>Purpose: Decline of motor performance in older individuals affects their quality of life. Understanding the contribution of sport-related training in advanced ages might help to attenuate motor performance decay as one gets older. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the extent to which long-lasting training in running or sport-specific skills during old age preserves motor performance in different motor tasks. Method: Older runners and tennis players with at least 10 years of training were assessed as were age-matched and young exercisers. Performance was evaluated for 6 motor tasks requiring different functions of sensorimotor control expected to decline with aging. Results: Analysis revealed that runners had increased aerobic fitness in comparison with the other older participants and that they presented similar performance to older exercisers in the motor tasks. Tennis players outperformed the other groups of older participants on coincident timing and simple reaction time and achieved similar performance to the young group on the timing task. Conclusions: These results suggest selective maintenance of task-specific processing through extensive practice of tennis-related motor skills in older adults.</p> <p>Keywords: Aerobic; exercise; gerontology; sport</p> <p>Because of increased longevity among humans in the last few decades, there has been a growing concern about maintenance of motor performance for achieving a high quality of life in older adults. The issue has been approached at different levels of analysis in scientific investigation mainly by assessing the contribution of two factors for maintenance of motor performance with aging: aerobic training and systematic practice of specific motor skills. At the histological level, studies testing the effect of voluntary running in older mice have shown attenuation of the natural reduction of neurogenesis and increased resemblance of newborn neuron morphology to that of young animals (see van Praag, Shubert, Zhao, & Gage, [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref1">33</reflink>], for a review). In humans, evidence has been gathered for brain volume increase in the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortices both in the gray and white matters as a result of aerobic fitness (given by oxygen consumption capacity) in older adults (Colcombe et al., [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref2">8</reflink>]). In addition, neurophysiological investigation has shown that aerobic fitness in older adults leads to greater task-related activity in the cerebral cortex (Colcombe et al., [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref3">9</reflink>]) and to increased network connectivity between different brain areas. These results suggest that aerobic fitness leads to the general maintenance of a healthier neuromuscular system (see Hayes, Hayes, Cadden, & Verfaellie, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref4">14</reflink>], for a review).</p> <p>The effect of aerobic training on neural processing seems to benefit motor performance. Comparisons between inactive and aerobically trained older adults have revealed that the latter demonstrate reduced delay in movement initiation in simple reaction time (SRT; Christensen et al., [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref5">7</reflink>]; Spirduso, [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref6">30</reflink>]) and choice reaction time (CRT; Abourezk & Toole, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref7">1</reflink>]; Spirduso, [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref8">30</reflink>]) tasks. In addition, it has been shown that shorter latency responses in exercised older adults are due not only to short muscle contractile time, but also to a short duration of the premotor component of responses (Baylor & Spirduso, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref9">3</reflink>]). This finding suggests that aerobic training in older adults leads to improved integration between sensory and motor processes in the central nervous system, while favoring fast reactions in tasks imposing time pressure. Additional investigation has shown that aerobic training can also improve deployment of attentional resources with a potential benefit to motor performance. As evidence for improved use of attentional resources as a result of aerobic training in older adults, participation in an aerobic training program induced higher performance on tasks requiring time sharing and attentional flexibility in older adults (Hawkins, Kramer, & Capaldi, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref10">13</reflink>]). Additional research has shown that aerobic training improves the ability of older individuals to ignore irrelevant visual information, abort a preprogrammed action, and coordinate multiple tasks (Kramer et al., [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref11">19</reflink>]). Based on the experimental evidence presented thus far, it is apparent that physiological adaptation to aerobic training in older adults, leading to increased oxygen supply to the neural system, attenuates age-related decline of neural processing subserving motor control in older adults (see Seidler et al., [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref12">29</reflink>], for a review).</p> <p>Whereas evidence has shown that aerobic training induces general gains in central nervous system functioning as compared with inactivity, systematic practice of motor skills seems to lead to task-specific effects on movement control. In an influential study on this topic, Krampe and Ericsson ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref13">21</reflink>]) compared young and older expert pianists and age-matched amateur pianists on a series of motor tasks, some of them related to specific piano-playing skills. Analysis of performance of older pianists showed normal age-related decline in measures of general processing speed. In expertise-related tasks, on the other hand, expected age effects in older professionals were reduced or absent. Those findings seem to reflect older experts' selective maintenance of acquired expertise-specific skills as a result of deliberate practice for an extensive period in old age (see also Amer, Kalender, Hasher, Trehub, & Wong, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref14">2</reflink>]; Iannarilli, Pesce, Persichini, & Capranica, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref15">16</reflink>]; Vieluf, Mahmoodi, Godde, Reuter, & Voelcker-Rehage, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref16">34</reflink>]). An additional point of interest in Krampe and Ericsson's results was that for some tasks related to piano playing, older amateurs performed at levels comparable to young amateurs. These results suggest that moderate practice for several years in a less dedicated way is sufficient to preserve to some extent performance in task components showing age-related decline in untrained individuals (cf. Kattenstroth, Kalisch, Kolankowska, & Dinse, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref17">17</reflink>]; Krampe, Smolders, & Doumas, [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref18">22</reflink>]). A similar conclusion has been drawn from training in sport skills. In an investigation comparing performance of young and older tennis players versus nonplayers on a sport-related task requiring manual button pressing for coincident timing with a moving stimulus, it was shown that older tennis players responded with temporal errors similar to those observed in young players, while controls demonstrated the expected age-related decline on the task (Lobjois, Benguigui, & Bertsch, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref19">23</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref20">24</reflink>]). Further investigation assessing performance on a collision avoidance task revealed an age-related increase in errors in nonplayers, whereas older tennis players presented similar performance in comparison with their younger counterparts (Lobjois, Benguigui, Bertsch, & Broderick, [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref21">25</reflink>]). The results described here suggest that practice of specific motor skills for years by older adults leads to a functionally specific maintenance of motor performance, even when skills are practiced at an amateur level.</p> <p>From the described global and task-specific benefits to motor performance in older adults, resulting respectively from aerobic training and practice of motor skills, it could be expected that the kind of motor activity regularly practiced by older adults leads to distinct effects. More specifically, based on findings that aerobic training induces a general improvement in neural functions (e.g., Burdette et al., [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref22">6</reflink>]), including those associated with movement control (e.g., Kramer et al., [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref23">19</reflink>]), we hypothesized that systematic aerobic training for years induces a general benefit to motor performance in older adults. From this perspective, aerobic training among older individuals should lead to attenuation of age-related decline in performance of distinct motor tasks in comparison to less aerobically fit older individuals. Training in motor skills associated with a given sport for years, on the other hand, was hypothesized to induce a selective maintenance of acquired expertise-specific motor performance.</p> <p>The hypotheses of general and selective benefits to motor performance in older adults were tested by comparing older amateur athlete groups of runners (expected general performance maintenance) versus tennis players (expected selective performance maintenance), who underwent regular training for the preceding 10 years. Comparisons were made on tasks related to distinct aspects of motor control expected to decline with aging, like finger dexterity, coincident timing, tapping, SRT (Teixeira, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref24">31</reflink>]), CRT (Kolev, Falkenstein, & Yordanova, [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref25">18</reflink>]), and balance stability limit (Duncan, Weiner, Chandler, & Studenski, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref26">10</reflink>]). These tasks, therefore, can be considered appropriate for assessing attenuation of age-related decline in motor performance either by aerobic training or by selective maintenance of motor performance. Coincident timing, in particular, was selected because of its functional association with ball interception in tennis (cf. Lobjois et al., [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref27">23</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref28">24</reflink>]). This task was used as the main reference for testing the selective maintenance hypothesis, with the expectation that tennis players should have superior performance on this task but not on the others. As baseline references, we employed age-matched exercisers and young individuals. The older exercisers represent our baseline for regular performance of healthy physically active older individuals, and the young individuals were employed as our reference for performance in early adulthood, a period in which performance is usually the highest in the lifecycle.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-2">Methods</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0117576474-3">Participants</hd> <p>Young and older healthy individuals volunteered to participate in this study. Young participants (10 women, 10 men; age range = 19–29 years, <emph>M</emph> = 21.8 years, <emph>SD</emph> = 2.4) had regular physical activity in their daily activities (e.g., jogging, sport-related activities), except regular practice in racquet sports. Older participants were representative of the following activity categories: tennis players (10 women, 11 men; age range = 60–82 years, <emph>M</emph> = 67.3 years, <emph>SD</emph> = 5.3), runners (10 women, 13 men; age range = 61–77 years, <emph>M</emph> = 68.0 years, <emph>SD</emph> = 5.2), and exercisers (10 women, 10 men; age range = 63–79 years, <emph>M</emph> = 68.2 age, <emph>SD</emph> = 5.1). Inclusion criteria for all participants were absence of physical or neurological diseases and absence of medication consumption that might impair motor performance. Tennis players and runners were recruited at respective sport associations. They declared to have had regular training, at a frequency of at least twice a week for the preceding 10 years. They also reported to have had regular participation in competitions at local or national levels in the respective sport modality. Exercisers participated in a university-supervised exercise program for older adults during the preceding 3 years (1-month-long pauses during the summer and winter times), consisting of activities aimed at developing aerobic fitness (walking and jogging), muscular resistance, and flexibility, with a frequency of twice a week. Participants declared that they independently performed all of their daily living activities. A modified Baecke's questionnaire (Voorrips, Ravelli, Dongelmans, Deurenberg, & Van Staveren, [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref29">35</reflink>]) was employed to quantify the physical activity of the older-adult groups. Additional characteristics of the older groups are described in Table 1. Participants signed an informed consent form to be included in the study, and the procedures were approved by the local university ethics committee.</p> <p>Table 1 Education and health-related characteristics of the older participants.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td /><td>Education (years)</td><td>Diseases (<italic>n</italic>)</td><td>Medications (<italic>n</italic>)</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Runners</td><td char=".">8.2 (3.6)</td><td char=".">5</td><td char=".">7</td></tr><tr><td>Tennis players</td><td char=".">9.5 (2.6)</td><td char=".">8</td><td char=".">13</td></tr><tr><td>Exercisers</td><td char=".">8.7 (4.5)</td><td char=".">12</td><td char=".">13</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>3 <emph>Note.</emph> Education: average of self-declared number of years of formal education (standard deviation in parentheses). Diseases (<emph>n</emph> participants) were mainly hypertension, coronary disease, hyperlipidemia, and osteoporosis. Medications (<emph>n</emph> participants) were used for treatment of hypertension, coronary disease, hyperlipidemia, climatery, hormonal supplementation, and osteoporosis.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-4">Tasks and equipment</hd> <p>Different tasks were employed to assess motor performance, as described in the following paragraphs.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-5">Finger dexterity</hd> <p>The task to assess finger dexterity consisted of sequentially touching the thumb with the other four fingers of the preferred hand in the following order: index, middle, ring, and little fingers. One trial consisted of performing this sequence of finger movements five times without interruption. The aim of the task was to complete a trial in the shortest period of time. Participants performed the task while sitting on a chair, having the elbow of the active hand upheld on a table. The forearm was kept stable by the participants without physical constraint in a predominant vertical orientation, slightly bent forward, with the active hand pronated. Movements were filmed using a digital camera (SONY, DV-500).</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-6">Tapping</hd> <p>Reciprocal tapping was used to evaluate movements requiring spatial accuracy and speed. The task was performed with the participant holding a stylus in the preferred hand, while sitting in front of a table supporting two targets on a horizontal frame. Targets were 1.5-cm wide and were set 24-cm apart. The shoulder of the participant's performing arm was aligned with the midline between targets. Under this arrangement, participants were required to make the greatest number of reciprocal tappings between the targets during a period of 10 s. The initial position to start a trial was the participant touching the right target with the stylus. Trials were initiated and finished from experimenter commands, with time monitored with a stopwatch. Movements were filmed for offline analysis with a digital camera (SONY, DV-500).</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-7">Balance stability limit</hd> <p>Duncan's functional reaching test (Duncan et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref30">10</reflink>]) was used to assess the limit of body balance stability. In that evaluation, participants were to assume initially a comfortable orthostatic posture, keeping feet hip-width apart. Then, they raised their preferred arm, while keeping the elbow and metacarpophalangeal joints extended, to achieve a horizontal orientation of the arm at the shoulder level. Afterward, they were asked to reach the farthest forward with their raised hand, at the height of the shoulders, without moving their feet. The task was performed by flexing the hip while reaching forward with the participant's body parallel to a wall. The wall was used as a reference to mark hand positions. Performance was measured through horizontal distance between the initial and final positions of the participants' fingertips. Values were normalized by the participant's height to compose a score of balance stability.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-8">Simple reaction time</hd> <p>Custom-made software was employed to assess simple visual reaction time. Assessment was performed with the participant sitting in front of a computer screen and responding to a visual stimulus by pressing keyboard keys with the index or middle fingers of either hand. Keys were represented in a row in the middle of the computer screen by the corresponding keyboard letters (D, F, K, and J) used to respond. Each finger was maintained in contact with the respective key throughout assessment. The responding finger was precued through a solid bar printed above the corresponding symbol on screen for 3 s. Following precueing turnoff, a random delay varying between 2 s and 4 s preceded the imperative stimulus. The imperative stimulus was presented by flashing a black ring around the precued symbol. Twelve trials across responding fingers were used for computing individual averages.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-9">Choice reaction time</hd> <p>A similar testing arrangement as that used for the simple visual reaction time assessment was employed to evaluate CRT. The distinguishing feature was not precueing the responding finger. The four letters printed on screen had the same probability of being used to trigger the response. A trial was initiated by simultaneously displaying a solid bar above all letters on screen as the warning signal. The other aspects were the same as described for the SRT task.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-10">Coincident timing</hd> <p>The task was performed on a custom-made electronic trackway (200 cm × 8 cm × 6 cm), while holding a continuous series of 1-cm-diameter light-emitting diodes arranged in a straight line from one end to the other, which was used to assess temporal accuracy in coincident timing. In that apparatus, light-emitting diodes were quickly turned on and off in sequence to produce the perception of continuous motion of a luminous stimulus (target) moving horizontally toward the participant. Displacement characteristics of the target were controlled through a microcomputer, generating an apparent constant target velocity of 3 m/s. At the end of the trackway proximal to the participant, there was a strain gauge inside a tennis hemiball filled with rigid plastic material, which was used to detect the instant of hand contact with the hemiball. The distance between the last diode and the contact surface of the hemiball was 4 cm. The experimental task consisted of hitting the hemiball with the inner part of the fingers at the instant that the moving target arrived at the receiving end of the trackway. That action was performed in an upright posture through an unconstrained movement with the preferred hand, made mainly by flexing the wrist from a starting position of the active hand at approximately 15 cm away from the hemiball. On this task, we measured temporal error given by the time that the hemiball was hit relative to the time of target arrival at the last diode adjacent to the hemiball.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-11">Aerobic fitness</hd> <p>Following supervised warm-up activities, participants were evaluated on an outdoor athletic track. Aerobic fitness was measured in older-adult groups using the Rockport Fitness Walking Test (cf. Fenstermaker, Plowman, & Looney, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref31">12</reflink>]). This field test required fast walking over a distance of 1,600 m, with a measurement of track walk time and heart rate in the final 15 s of the course. Heart rate was measured through a cardiac monitor device (Polar WearLink) attached to each participant's chest. A standard clinical scale was used for measurement of weight. The following equation was used to estimate maximum oxygen consumption (VO<subs>2</subs>max):</p> <p>(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref32">1</reflink>)</p> <p>Graph</p> <p>in which sex = 1 for men and 0 for women and estimated VO<subs>2</subs>max is given in mL/kg/min. This test has been shown to provide a valid estimate of VO<subs>2</subs>max in older adults (Fenstermaker et al., [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref33">12</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-12">Procedures</hd> <p>Motor tasks were assessed in the same sequence across participants (finger dexterity, coincident timing, SRT, CRT, tapping, and balance stability limit) in a single session; VO<subs>2</subs>max was assessed on a different day. The following procedures were adopted across task assessments. Specific instruction and two familiarization trials were provided immediately before assessment on the respective task. Participants were free to use the hand they preferred to perform the tasks. Three trials were completed for each task, with approximately 30-s intervals between trials, time in which participants rested at the site of task performance. Reaction time tasks were an exception to that procedure. For SRT and CRT tasks, participants performed two sets of 12 trials before being tested on a single set of 12 trials; intertrial intervals were 5 s long. For all tasks, following the end of each trial, participants were provided with immediate quantitative feedback about their performance, corresponding to the specific measurement for each task to keep participants motivated. Task-specific errors led to repeating the trial immediately. Errors leading to trial repetition were the following: wrong sequence of movements on the finger dexterity task; failure to activate the sensor when touching the trackway hemiball on the coincident timing task; SRT < 150 ms (anticipation) or>600 ms (miss); CRT < 200 ms (anticipation) or>800 ms (miss) or pressing a wrong key, with trial repetition made with a different sequence of imperative stimuli; making more than one spatial error (evaluated from visual inspection) on the tapping task; and moving one or both of the feet to recover balance when moving their trunk forward when assessing balance stability limit. Two percent to 5% of trials across tasks and groups were repeated based on these criteria. Additional task-specific procedures included offline analysis of performance on the finger dexterity and tapping tasks from images acquired at 60 Hz. In addition, for the coincident timing task, sampling frequency was 1,000 Hz, and analysis was made on absolute temporal errors.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-13">Analysis</hd> <p>Dependent variables included: finger dexterity movement time, computed as the interval between the first and last touches between fingers; tapping movement time, computed as average movement time of taps between the two targets in each trial; maximum normalized amplitude of reaching for the balance stability limit test; latency to press the keys following the imperative stimulus for SRT and CRT; and absolute temporal error for coincident timing. Individual scores on trials for each task were averaged for analysis. Preliminary analyses through Kolmogorov and Hartley tests showed data distribution normality and homoscedasticity, respectively. Results from the Baecke questionnaire for quantification of physical activity and from VO<subs>2</subs>max measurement were compared only between groups of older participants through a two-way 3 (group) × 2 (sex) analysis of variance (ANOVA) for nonrepeated measures. Data analysis of performance on motor tasks was made through two-way 4 (group) × 2 (sex) ANOVAs for nonrepeated measures. Post-hoc comparisons were performed through Newman-Keuls procedures. To evaluate a possible association between motor performance and VO<subs>2</subs>max, we pooled data from the three groups of older individuals and calculated Pearson correlation coefficients between estimated VO<subs>2</subs>max and performance on each motor task. Statistically significant results at the level of 5% or lower are reported, accompanied by the respective effect sizes given by partial eta squared (η<sups>2</sups>).</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-14">Results</hd> <p>Intrarater reliability was assessed on 20% of the trials for performance evaluation on video analysis for the finger dexterity and tapping tasks. The time interval between evaluations was 2 weeks. The proportion of test–retest coincidence of results, with a tolerance of two frames difference, revealed values of.78 for finger dexterity and.83 for tapping.</p> <p>The analysis on the amount of daily-living physical activity on the Baecke questionnaire indicated statistically significant main effects of group, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref34">2</reflink>, 58) = 8.00, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .23, and sex, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref35">1</reflink>, 58) = 5.97, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .10. The effect of sex was due to the fact that women (<emph>M</emph> = 18.49, <emph>SD</emph> = 6.28) were rated as being more physically active than men (<emph>M</emph> = 15.27, <emph>SD</emph> = 5.11). Post-hoc comparisons for the effect of group revealed that tennis players (<emph>M</emph> = 17.89, <emph>SD</emph> = 4.65) and runners (<emph>M</emph> = 18.97, <emph>SD</emph> = 6.36) achieved higher scores than exercisers (<emph>M</emph> = 12.64, <emph>SD</emph> = 4.30), with the absence of a statistically significant difference between tennis players and runners. The analysis of VO<subs>2</subs>max indicated statistically significant main effects of group, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref36">2</reflink>, 58) = 10.09, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .27, and sex, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref37">1</reflink>, 58) = 24.23, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .31. The effect of sex was due to increased values for men (<emph>M</emph> = 34.56 mL/kg/min, <emph>SD</emph> = 5.40) as compared with women (<emph>M</emph> = 28.71 mL/kg/min, <emph>SD</emph> = 4.89). Post-hoc comparisons for the effect of group revealed that runners (<emph>M</emph> = 35.28 mL/kg/min, <emph>SD</emph> = 5.37) achieved higher values than exercisers (<emph>M</emph> = 29.38 mL/kg/min, <emph>SD</emph> = 5.39) and tennis players (<emph>M</emph> = 30.20 mL/kg/min, <emph>SD</emph> = 5.29), with no statistically significant difference between the latter two groups. The same analysis for time to complete the distance in the Rockport Fitness Walking Test indicated a statistically significant main effect of group, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref38">2</reflink>, 58) = 18.82, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .41. Post-hoc comparisons revealed that runners (<emph>M</emph> = 13.53 min, <emph>SD</emph> = 0.24) achieved shorter times than exercisers (<emph>M</emph> = 14.95 min, <emph>SD</emph> = 0.27) and tennis players (<emph>M</emph> = 15.63 min, <emph>SD</emph> = 0.25), with no statistically significant difference between the latter two groups.</p> <p>Groups' averages (standard deviations in parentheses) for each motor task are presented in Table 2. Analysis showed a statistically significant main effect of group for finger dexterity, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref39">3</reflink>, 76) = 10.52, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .31, tapping, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref40">3</reflink>, 76) = 6.68, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .22, balance stability limit, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref41">3</reflink>, 76) = 5.56, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .19, and CRT, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref42">3</reflink>, 76) = 20.42, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .46. Post-hoc comparisons for these variables showed that the group effect was due to shorter movement/reaction times and higher values of balance stability limit for the young in comparison with the three groups of older participants, with no statistically significant differences between the older groups. Analysis of SRT also indicated a statistically significant main effect of group, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref43">3</reflink>, 76) = 8.47, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .26. Post-hoc comparisons indicated that the young group responded with shorter latencies than the three groups of older adults and that the tennis players achieved shorter response latencies than runners and exercisers; no statistically significant differences were found between runners and exercisers. Analysis of coincident timing indicated statistically significant main effects of group, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref44">3</reflink>, 76) = 15.01, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .38, and sex, <emph>F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref45">1</reflink>, 76) = 6.34, <emph>p</emph> < .05, η<sups>2</sups> = .08. Post-hoc comparisons for the effect of group indicated that temporal errors of the young group and older tennis players were significantly lower than those of the runners and exerciser groups, without statistically significant differences between the young group and tennis players or between runners and exercisers. Effect of sex was due to lower errors for men (<emph>M</emph> = 47.56 ms, <emph>SD</emph> = 20.51) than for women (<emph>M</emph> = 56.27 ms, <emph>SD</emph> = 26.50). No Group × Sex interactions were found across the analyses. Correlation analysis between VO<subs>2</subs>max and performance on each task indicated <emph>r</emph><sups><emph>2</emph></sups> values ranging from.006 (SRT) to.05 (balance stability limit); none of the analyses achieved statistical and practical significance. Additional analysis of correlation between time to complete the Rockport Fitness Walking Test and performance on each task indicated nonsignificant <emph>r</emph><sups>2</sups> values ranging from.001 (SRT) to.03 (coincident timing).</p> <p>Table 2 Means (standard deviations in parentheses) for performance on each motor task as a function of group.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td /><td>Exercisers</td><td>Runners</td><td>Tennis players</td><td>Young</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Finger dexterity (s)</td><td>5.66 (0.77)</td><td>5.63 (0.95)</td><td>5.33 (1.00)</td><td>4.31 (0.75)<sup>*</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Timing (ms)</td><td>64.56 (22.01)</td><td>65.03 (25.42)</td><td>43.88 (16.45)<sup>er</sup></td><td>32.39 (9.85)<sup>er</sup></td></tr><tr><td>SRT (ms)</td><td>294.24 (93.77)</td><td>348.43 (149.26)</td><td>266.26 (65.07)<sup>er</sup></td><td>194.87 (26.31)<sup>*</sup></td></tr><tr><td>CRT (ms)</td><td>459.01 (90.68)</td><td>484.37 (105.63)</td><td>471.62 (113.07)</td><td>292.47 (45.35)<sup>*</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Tapping (ms)</td><td>470.44 (60.25)</td><td>436.62 (64.37)</td><td>433.86 (52.38)</td><td>388.71 (48.70)<sup>*</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Stability limit (cm)</td><td>21.74 (2.50)</td><td>21.95 (3.23)</td><td>21.18 (2.95)</td><td>24.90 (3.59)<sup>*</sup></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>4 <emph>Note</emph>. SRT = simple reaction time; CRT = choice reaction time. Statistically significant differences (<emph>p</emph> < .05): <sups>*</sups>from all other groups, <emph>er</emph> from exercisers and runners.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-15">Discussion</hd> <p>The purpose of this investigation was to assess the role of long-lasting training in running or tennis-related motor skills on motor performance maintenance of older adults as compared to age-matched and young exercisers. As expected, runners showed higher aerobic fitness in comparison with the other older groups. Analysis of motor tasks revealed that runners had similar performance to exercisers on all variables assessed. Tennis players, on the other hand, outperformed the other older groups and achieved similar performance to that of young participants in coincident timing. An additional advantage for the tennis players was observed in SRT, with shorter response latency in comparison with the other groups of older participants. These results suggest that extensive practice of tennis-related motor skills over the years in older adults favored motor performance maintenance on tasks related to their training, while aerobic training led to results similar to those achieved from general physical activity.</p> <p>Previous research has evidenced histologic (e.g., Colcombe et al., [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref46">8</reflink>]) and physiologic (e.g., Burdette et al., [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref47">6</reflink>]) adaptations from aerobic training in older adults, with attenuation of age-related decline in brain structure and function. Positive effects of aerobic training on motor performance of older adults have also been documented in the performance of different motor tasks (e.g., Kramer et al., [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref48">19</reflink>]). Our results, conversely, showed that even though runners had increased aerobic fitness among older participants, no advantage in motor performance was observed favoring that group. Consistent with that observation, our results showed a lack of a statistically significant correlation between VO<subs>2</subs>max and motor performance in the older participants across the tasks. These results, then, refute the hypothesis that systematic aerobic training over the years induces a general benefit to motor performance in older adults. An aspect to be taken into consideration in the interpretation of these results is that assessment of the effect of aerobic training in previous studies has been made on the basis of comparisons between aerobically fit and inactive adults (e.g., Abourezk & Toole, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref49">1</reflink>]) or stretching/toning exercising (e.g., Erickson et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref50">11</reflink>]) older adults. Those comparisons indicate, then, the benefit of aerobic training for older adults in comparison with individuals who have low levels of aerobic fitness.</p> <p>Similar performance between runners and individuals who had aerobic training as part of their regular exercise in our study shows a distinct aspect of that matter. It suggests that increased aerobic fitness does not lead to motor performance higher than that induced by less strenuous aerobic training. It is apparent from our results, then, that light aerobic training, as represented by walking and jogging made at each training session as part of a physical activity program for older adults, induces similar benefits to motor performance as those induced by systematic and more intense aerobic training among runners. That viewpoint is consistent with findings that relatively light physical activities focusing on aerobics attenuate age-related decline in neurophysiologic parameters (Berchicci, Lucci, Perri, Spinelli, & Di Russo, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref51">5</reflink>]; Burdette et al., [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref52">6</reflink>]; Erickson et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref53">11</reflink>]), leading to improved performance on tasks requiring executive control in the brain (Berchicci, Lucci, & Di Russo, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref54">4</reflink>]; Hawkins et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref55">13</reflink>]; Kramer et al., [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref56">19</reflink>]).</p> <p>Tennis players' performance corroborated the expected advantage in the performance of the motor task more functionally related to tennis game requirements, as represented by information processing required by coincident timing. A point to underscore in these results is that the most evident functional advantage of tennis players was observed not in the performance of specific tennis skills, but on a task requiring temporization of manual movements to the arrival of a moving target. Even though the ballistic characteristic of tennis striking movements is distinct from the movements performed during the experimental task, the coincident timing task required that movements were initiated while taking into consideration neurophysiologic time-related constraints imposed by aging, like delays for movement initiation and execution (Baylor & Spirduso, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref57">3</reflink>]). As shown in previous investigations, older tennis players adjust their movement initiation time to deal with the longer visuomotor delay (Lobjois et al., [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref58">23</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref59">24</reflink>]) and response time (Lobjois et al., [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref60">25</reflink>]) induced by aging. It seems, then, that the practice of interceptive actions when playing tennis induces specific maintenance of the perceptuomotor functions underlying high performance on coincident timing tasks. This finding implies between-task generalizability leading to accurate motion initiation regarding neural processing and muscular contraction delays.</p> <p>The advantage for tennis players compared with runners on SRT may be also associated with tennis game requirements. As tennis players face situations imposing time pressure to respond through well-practiced automatic movements, they are frequently required to react quickly with prompted movements to intercept fast-approaching balls. The present results suggest that this component of tennis playing is particularly advantageous in the comparison to training in other activities lacking the requirement of fast reactions to environmental events. Although it could be argued that neural processing required by the CRT task has some similarity to that of the tennis game, we found no statistically significant differences between the older groups on that task. An interpretation for that result is that the frequent decision making during the tennis game (which movement to do in each ball strike, what position to move to on the court) does not ameliorate the general capability to respond with shorter delays in CRT tasks not related to specific tennis skills. Alternatively, it is possible that an adequate evaluation of CRT in older groups would require previous experience on that particular task to develop increased stimulus–response compatibility (cf. Iacoboni, Woods, & Mazziotta, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref61">15</reflink>]), leading to shorter latencies (and reduced intragroup variance) to associate the due manual response to a visual stimulus.</p> <p>Our results, therefore, suggest that the observed advantages in motor performance in tennis players are not due to learning specific sport-related motor skills at a higher level but to activating more generalizable movement-related neural processes. Apparently, systematic activation of the neural network subserving control of tennis-related skills during aging is a factor leading to the specific functional maintenance of motor performance. The systematic practice of specific motor skills has been shown to induce persistent neurophysiologic adaptation associated with improved behavioral responses (Pearce, Thickbroom, Byrnes, & Mastaglia, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref62">26</reflink>]; Schwenkreis et al., [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref63">28</reflink>]; Tyc, Boyadjian, & Devanne, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref64">32</reflink>]). More specifically, assessment of young skilled racquet players has indicated increased motor-evoked-potential amplitudes and shifts in the cortical motor maps for their playing hand (Pearce et al., [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref65">26</reflink>]). Similar neural plasticity has also been found in volleyball (Tyc et al., [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref66">32</reflink>]) and violin (Schwenkreis et al., [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref67">28</reflink>]) players. These results support the assumption that a similar neural adaptation takes place in older tennis players and favor the interpretation of selective maintenance of the exercised processing functions (Krampe, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref68">20</reflink>]; Krampe et al., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref69">22</reflink>]). As coincident timing and speeded reactions are fundamental behavioral components with relevance for performance on several motor actions, it is plausible that the observed benefit to motor performance among older tennis players may be manifest also in other motor tasks related to the same processing functions (see Kattenstroth et al., [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref70">17</reflink>]; Schorer & Baker, [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref71">27</reflink>]). An additional point of scientific and applied interest in our results was that functional advantages were observed in older amateurs, as previously found in the analysis of tennis (Lobjois et al., [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref72">23</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref73">24</reflink>]) and piano (Krampe & Ericsson, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref74">21</reflink>]) players' performance as well as in martial artists' (Krampe et al., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref75">22</reflink>]) performance. Although professional training, featured by increased commitment with performance improvement, has been shown to lead to more noticeable maintenance of performance on selected motor skills in older adults (Krampe & Ericsson, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref76">21</reflink>]), the advantage of amateur tennis players over other physically active older individuals suggests that such a benefit can be achieved through less strenuous activities.</p> <p>As a major limitation in our results interpretation, it is possible that other factors associated with the groups' composition may have affected motor performance. Among these factors are possible differences among the older groups not associated with the task in which they were trained, like socioeconomic status, intensity/frequency of training, or increased use of the assessed hand in the training of tennis players in comparison with the other groups of older participants. However, as a counterpoint to the latter limitation, if general factors had induced a performance advantage for the tennis players, one would expect to find a global effect on motor performance, with that effect being manifested in most of the evaluated tasks rather than an advantage in the performance of specific tasks. As further limitations in the interpretation of our results, it is possible that part of the intergroup differences were gained through activities other than sport-related activities or resulted from older participants' physical activity training in their youth. Care must be taken in the interpretation of low correlation values between aerobic fitness and motor performance, which might be due to the small sample size or homogeneity of the sample. So, the conclusion may be different if nonexercising older adults are evaluated. Additionally, low-to-moderate effect sizes indicate that the conclusions drawn from our results should be corroborated by further data with larger groups of participants to increase their confidence power.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-16">What does this article add?</hd> <p>Comparison of motor performance benefits from long-lasting training of running versus tennis skills over general exercising in older adults led to interesting conclusions with implications for selection of training activities for improvement of motor performance in older adults. Whereas running was found to lead to higher aerobic fitness in comparison with practice of other activities, that kind of training failed to promote motor performance superior to that achieved through a general physical activity program for older adults. This finding suggests that a limited dose of aerobic training for the elderly may lead to a general maintenance of their performance similar to that observed from intensive aerobic training by older runners. The finding that improved performance was found in older tennis players in tennis-related probing tasks suggests that engagement in regular practice of specific skills induces adaptive changes counteracting the normal age-related decline in performance, specifically for motor performance associated with the practiced tasks. Generalizing from this finding, it could be expected that regular practice of different motor skills requiring distinct sensorimotor functions should lead to more extensive maintenance of motor performance in older adults, while favoring performance on increased numbers of motor skills. As the tennis players participating in our study had at least 10 years of regular practice in the sport, it remains open to investigation whether a similar effect could be achieved as a result of shorter periods of training and whether the practice of different sports induces equivalent effects to those observed in tennis players.</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-17">Funding</hd> <p>The present study was supported by grants provided by the Brazilian Council of Science and Technology (LAT, CNPq #303052/2010-4) and by the São Paulo State Foundation for Research Support (JBD, FAPESP #01/14048-8).</p> <hd id="AN0117576474-18">ORCID</hd> <p>Juliana Bayeux Dascal <ulink href="http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4273-2114Luis">http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4273-2114Luis</ulink> Augusto Teixeira <ulink href="http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4132-0484">http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4132-0484</ulink></p> <ref id="AN0117576474-19"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref7" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Abourezk , T. , & Toole , T. 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Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise , 23 , 974 – 979.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Juliana Bayeux Dascal and Luis Augusto Teixeira</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref18"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref19"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref20"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref26"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref31"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref50"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref61"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref62"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref63"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref64"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref68"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref71"></nolink>
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Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: Selective Maintenance of Motor Performance in Older Adults from Long-Lasting Sport Practice
– Name: Language
  Label: Language
  Group: Lang
  Data: English
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Dascal%2C+Juliana+Bayeux%22">Dascal, Juliana Bayeux</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Teixeira%2C+Luis+Augusto%22">Teixeira, Luis Augusto</searchLink>
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Research+Quarterly+for+Exercise+and+Sport%22"><i>Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport</i></searchLink>. 2016 87(3):262-270.
– Name: Avail
  Label: Availability
  Group: Avail
  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: Y
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 9
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2016
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Psychomotor+Skills%22">Psychomotor Skills</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Older+Adults%22">Older Adults</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Athletics%22">Athletics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Quality+of+Life%22">Quality of Life</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Training%22">Training</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Skill+Development%22">Skill Development</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Maintenance%22">Maintenance</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Racquet+Sports%22">Racquet Sports</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Exercise%22">Exercise</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Perceptual+Motor+Coordination%22">Perceptual Motor Coordination</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Aging+%28Individuals%29%22">Aging (Individuals)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Physical+Fitness%22">Physical Fitness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Gerontology%22">Gerontology</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Questionnaires%22">Questionnaires</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Statistical+Analysis%22">Statistical Analysis</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Comparative+Analysis%22">Comparative Analysis</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Age+Differences%22">Age Differences</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1080/02701367.2016.1188195
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0270-1367
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Purpose: Decline of motor performance in older individuals affects their quality of life. Understanding the contribution of sport-related training in advanced ages might help to attenuate motor performance decay as one gets older. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the extent to which long-lasting training in running or sport-specific skills during old age preserves motor performance in different motor tasks. Method: Older runners and tennis players with at least 10 years of training were assessed as were age-matched and young exercisers. Performance was evaluated for 6 motor tasks requiring different functions of sensorimotor control expected to decline with aging. Results: Analysis revealed that runners had increased aerobic fitness in comparison with the other older participants and that they presented similar performance to older exercisers in the motor tasks. Tennis players outperformed the other groups of older participants on coincident timing and simple reaction time and achieved similar performance to the young group on the timing task. Conclusions: These results suggest selective maintenance of task-specific processing through extensive practice of tennis-related motor skills in older adults.
– Name: AbstractInfo
  Label: Abstractor
  Group: Ab
  Data: As Provided
– Name: Ref
  Label: Number of References
  Group: RefInfo
  Data: 35
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2016
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1111354
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1111354
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  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1080/02701367.2016.1188195
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 9
        StartPage: 262
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Psychomotor Skills
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Older Adults
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Athletics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Quality of Life
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Training
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Skill Development
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Maintenance
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Racquet Sports
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Exercise
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Perceptual Motor Coordination
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Aging (Individuals)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Physical Fitness
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Gerontology
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Questionnaires
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Statistical Analysis
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Comparative Analysis
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Age Differences
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Selective Maintenance of Motor Performance in Older Adults from Long-Lasting Sport Practice
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            NameFull: Dascal, Juliana Bayeux
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            NameFull: Teixeira, Luis Augusto
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              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2016
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            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0270-1367
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              Value: 87
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              Value: 3
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            – TitleFull: Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport
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