Brain network flexibility during motor preparation was critical for acquiring and maintaining new motor actions in younger adults, but this coupling was attenuated with aging.
Age-group differences were found in motor learning properties between younger and older adults on a visuomotor learning task.
Brain network flexibility differed between younger and older adult participants.
In younger adults, the learning aftereffect was associated with brain network flexibility during motor preparation in the learning task.
The association between learning aftereffect and brain network flexibility during motor preparation was not observed in older adults.
The neural relationships between brain network flexibility and motor learning differed between age groups.
This research suggests that the brain's ability to rapidly reorganize its network connections — called 'brain network flexibility' — plays an important role in learning new motor skills, but this role changes as people age. Using EEG brain recordings, the researchers measured how flexibly large-scale brain networks reconfigure from moment to moment in both younger and older adults while they practiced a visuomotor task (coordinating hand movements with visual feedback). They found that younger adults who showed greater brain network flexibility during the preparation phase before making movements tended to show better learning outcomes, as measured by a 'learning aftereffect' — how well the new motor pattern was retained. In older adults, this connection between brain network flexibility and motor learning outcomes was absent. While older adults still showed some degree of motor learning and brain network flexibility, these two things were not linked in the same way as in younger adults. This suggests that older adults may rely on different neural strategies when learning new movements, and that the brain's flexible reconfiguration during motor planning becomes less central to the learning process with age. This research matters because motor learning is important throughout life — from learning to walk in infancy to rehabilitation after injury in old age. Understanding how the brain's network organization supports (or fails to support) motor learning at different life stages could eventually inform the design of better training or rehabilitation programs tailored to older adults, who may need approaches that engage different neural mechanisms than those that work for younger people.
Uehara K, Hagihara M, Kitajo K. (2026). Distinct roles of brain network flexibility in motor learning across age.. Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.). https://doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.1359