EEG-Based Discrimination of Aging Effects from Movement Therapy Using Machine Learning

This study investigates EEG-based biomarkers and machine learning for objective assessment of motor senescence interventions in elderly populations. We recorded resting-state and movement-related EEG signals from participants aged 40+ before and after therapy, extracting power spectral density (PSD) features to characterize age-related neural patterns. Six machine learning models (LR, DT, RF, kNN, SVM, XGB) were evaluated for age-group discrimination. XGB achieved peak performance (90.4% accuracy during rest; 90.2% during movement), with Random Forest closely following (88.1%; 86.7%). Spectral analysis revealed elevated ¿/ß-band PSD in elderly participants, suggesting compensatory neural mechanisms, while movement preparation showed consistent ¿-band suppression across age groups. Classification metrics demonstrated superior recognition of young adults (precision: 92¿93% vs. 87% for elderly), highlighting a systematic model bias. These findings validate EEG biomarkers as quantitative tools for assessing neuroplasticity-driven motor recovery, addressing critical gaps in geriatric care evaluation through computational neurophysiology. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.

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