Impact of Aging and Cognitive Mechanisms on High-Speed Motor Activation Patterns: Evidence from an Orthoptera-Robot Interaction

Motor performance deficits are major issues impacting functional activities in older adults. Herein, we used locusts, emergent model organisms for neurodegeneration and motor deficit studies, to investigate the role of cognition as compensation strategy to age-related motor activation deficiency. An animal-robot interaction has been established to evoke anti-predator motor responses in locusts. We found a significantly earlier decision making of older adults that displayed their first motor response at a significantly longer distance from the approaching robotic predator, compared to young adults. Although older adult locusts reacted earlier to the approaching robot, performing a wider movement with their hind leg if compared to young adults, older adults obtained a body displacement significantly shorter than the body displacement of younger individuals. The earlier reaction in older adult locusts is probably due to a strategic behavior compensating a slower muscular response that may require a longer time to be performed, and this is consistent with other compensation strategies reported in humans. To the best of our knowledge this research represents a pilot study using ethorobotics to characterize associations between cognitive and motor functions, adding basic information on high-speed sensory-motor activation, that can be exploited to ameliorate motor decline in older adults.