Older adults use fewer muscles to overcome perturbations during a seated locomotor task.

Locomotor perturbations provide insights into the human's response to motor errors. We investigated the differences in motor adaptation and muscle co-contraction between young and older adults during perturbed arms and legs recumbent stepping. We hypothesized that besides prolonged adaptation due to use-dependent learning, older adults would exhibit greater muscle co-contraction than young adults in response to the perturbations. Perturbations were brief increases in resistance applied during each stride at the extension-onset or mid-extension of the left or right leg. Seventeen young adults and eleven older adults completed four 10-minute perturbed stepping tasks. Subjects were instructed to follow a visual pacing cue, step smoothly, and use all their limbs to drive the stepper. Results showed that young and older adults did not decrease their errors with more perturbation experience, and errors did not wash out after perturbations were removed. Interestingly, older adults consistently had smaller motor errors than young adults in response to the perturbations. Older adults used fewer muscles to drive the stepper and had greater co-contraction than young adults. The results suggest that despite similar motor error responses, young and older adults use distinctive muscle recruitment patterns to perform the motor task. Age-related motor strategies help track motor changes across the human lifespan and are a baseline for rehabilitation and performance assessment.