Shared neural recruitment across working memory and motor control tasks as a function of task difficulty and age

Past research suggests that working memory (WM) and motor control may engage similar cognitive and neural mechanisms in older adults, particularly when task difficulty increases. However, much of this evidence arises from comparisons across behavioral and imaging studies that test only one of the foregoing functional domains. The current study used fMRI within the same group of older adults to investigate whether WM and motor control recruit common mechanisms, and whether recruitment increased with task demand and age. A conjunction analysis across WM and motor tasks revealed engagement of several frontoparietal regions as a function of increasing task demand. A separate conjunction analysis which included age as a predictor showed comparable regions exhibit increased recruitment with both increasing task demand and age. Results suggest that the recruitment of common frontoparietal regions across WM and motor tasks in response to task difficulty is maintained across the older adult lifespan.