Bodily awareness is a central component of human sensation, action, and cognition. The human body is subject to profound changes over the adult lifespan. We live in an aging society: the mean age of people living in industrialized countries is currently over 40 years, and further increases are expected. Nevertheless, there is a lack of comprehensive knowledge that links changes in embodiment that occur with age to neuronal mechanisms and associated sensorimotor and cognitive deficits in older adults. Here, we synthesize existing evidence and introduce the NFL Framework of Embodied Aging, which links basic neuronal (N) mechanisms of age-related sensorimotor decline to changes in functional (F) bodily impairments, including deficits in higher-level cognitive functions, and impairments in daily life (L). We argue that cognitive and daily life impairments associated with old age are often due to deficits in embodiment, which can partly be linked to neuronal degradation at the sensorimotor level. The framework may encourage the development of novel approaches to improve autonomous living for older adults.

身体意识是人类感觉，行动和认知的重要组成部分。人体在成年人的寿命中经历着深刻的变化。我们生活在一个老龄化社会中：工业化国家的平均年龄目前超过40岁，并且有望进一步增长。然而，缺乏将年龄发生的实施方式的变化与老年人的神经元机制以及相关的感觉运动和认知缺陷联系起来的综合知识。在这里，我们综合了现有证据，并介绍了NFL体现的衰老框架，该框架将与年龄相关的感觉运动下降的基本神经元（N）机制与功能性（F）身体损伤的变化联系在一起，包括高级认知功能的缺陷和损伤在日常生活中（L）。我们认为与老年有关的认知和日常生活障碍通常是由于实施方式的缺陷，其部分与感觉运动水平的神经元退化有关。该框架可以鼓励开发新颖的方法来改善老年人的自主生活。