Journal of Neuroscience: Sluggishness of the elderly is due to greater use of calories, research finds

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder (USA) have found that the muscles of the elderly use more calories when moving than the muscles of younger people. The results of the respective study were published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

More than 80 young (18-35 years old) and elderly (66-87) people participated in the research. At first, everyone was given a simple task: to move the cursor on the screen to the designated place. The research subjects had to use a special joystick which was more difficult—in terms of energy consumption—to work with.

The researchers monitored the reaction speed of the participants during the experiment, and recorded the amount of energy that was used while performing the task. And it was found that the elderly needed more energy when using this joystick than the young.

In the second phase of the study, its subjects were told that they would receive a reward if they improved their skills. As a result, both groups began to control the cursor 5 percent faster. However, this result was obtained at the expense of the fact that the young people moved their hands faster, and the older people began to react faster. The thing is that the elderly started the path to the task a little earlier.

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