Why Do Parents Tend To Move Slow? This Is The Answer According To Research

Illustration (Magda Ehlers/Pexels)

JAKARTA - It is common knowledge that the human body naturally becomes slower in its movement as it ages. Several potential explanations related to the cause are slower metabolism, loss of muscle mass, and becoming less active over time.

Kini, para peneliti dari University of Colorado Boulder mengatakan orang tua bergerak lebih lambat. Karena mereka menghabiskan lebih energi untuk melakukan hal tersebut dibandingkan orang usia muda.

Scientists believe the research recently published in the journal The Journal of Neuroscience. Can help produce new diagnostic tools for diseases such as Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.

For this study, researchers recruited 84 healthy participants, including young adults aged 18 to 35 years and adults aged 66 to 87 years. During the study, participants were asked to achieve targets on the screen while holding robotic arms on their right hands. Robotic arms operate similarly to computer mice.

Through a pattern analysis of how participants reach them, scientists find that parents modify their movements at certain times. To help save more limited amounts of energy, compared to young people.

"Over the ages, muscle cells become less efficient in converting energy into muscle strength to move," said Alaa A. Ahmed, PhD, professor at Paul M. Rady's Department of Machine Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and senior author of the study. explained to Medical News Today, Monday, June 3.

Ahmed and his team also want to see how aging can affect the 'appreciative circuit' in the brain, as the body produces fewer dopamines with age.

Once again, participants are asked to use a robotic arm to operate the cursor on the computer screen. The goal is to achieve certain targets on the screen. If successful in achieving the target, participants will be given a gift in the form of a bing' sound.

The researchers found that young and old adults hit the target faster when they found out they were going to hear bing'.

However, scientists say they achieve this in a different way. Young people only move the arm faster while parents increase their reaction time, starting their reach with a robotic arm an average of about 17 milliseconds faster.