Children exhibit a developmental advantage in the offline processing of a learned motor sequence.

ABSTRACT: Changes in specific behaviors across the lifespan are frequently reported as an inverted-U trajectory. That is, young adults exhibit optimal performance, children are conceptualized as developing systems progressing towards this ideal state, and older adulthood is characterized by performance decrements. However, not all behaviors follow this trajectory, as there are instances in which children outperform young adults. Here, we acquired data from 7-35 and >55 year-old participants and assessed potential developmental advantages in motor sequence learning and memory consolidation. Results revealed no credible evidence for differences in initial learning dynamics among age groups, but 7- to 12-year-old children exhibited smaller sequence-specific learning relative to adolescents, young adult

SUBMITTER: Van Roy A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11332225 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature