scholarly journals Distinct cortical thickness patterns link disparate cerebral cortex regions to select mobility domains

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inbal Maidan ◽  
Anat Mirelman ◽  
Jeffrey M. Hausdorff ◽  
Yaakov Stern ◽  
Christian G. Habeck
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Mri Scan ◽  
Timed Up And Go ◽  
Mobility Assessment ◽  
General Mobility ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Healthy Participants

AbstractThe cortical control of gait and mobility involves multiple brain regions. Therefore, one could speculate that the association between specific spatial patterns of cortical thickness may be differentially associated with different mobility domains. To test this possibility, 115 healthy participants aged 27–82 (mean 60.5 ± 13.8) underwent a mobility assessment (usual-walk, dual-task walk, Timed Up and Go) and MRI scan. Ten mobility domains of relatively simple (e.g., usual-walking) and complex tasks (i.e., dual task walking, turns, transitions) and cortical thickness of 68 ROIs were extracted. All associations between mobility and cortical thickness were controlled for age and gender. Scaled Subprofile Modelling (SSM), a PCA-regression, identified thickness patterns that were correlated with the individual mobility domains, controlling for multiple comparisons. We found that lower mean global cortical thickness was correlated with worse general mobility (r = − 0.296, p = 0.003), as measured by the time to complete the Timed Up and Go test. Three distinct patterns of cortical thickness were associated with three different gait domains during simple, usual-walking: pace, rhythm, and symmetry. In contrast, cortical thickness patterns were not related to the more complex mobility domains. These findings demonstrate that robust and topographically distinct cortical thickness patterns are linked to select mobility domains during relatively simple walking, but not to more complex aspects of mobility. Functional connectivity may play a larger role in the more complex aspects of mobility.

scholarly journals Dual-Task Tests Predict Conversion to Dementia—A Prospective Memory-Clinic-Based Cohort Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (21) ◽  
pp. 8129
Author(s):  
Hanna B Åhman ◽  
Lars Berglund ◽  
Ylva Cedervall ◽  
Lena Kilander ◽  
Vilmantas Giedraitis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Roc Curves ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Cognitive Tests ◽  
Predictive Capacity ◽  
Timed Up And Go ◽  
Dementia Incidence ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Age Range

The aim of this study was to investigate whether Timed Up-and-Go (TUG) dual-task (TUGdt) tests predict dementia incidence among patients with subjective or mild cognitive impairment (SCI; MCI). Other study objectives were to determine whether TUGdt improves dementia prediction compared to a) demographic characteristics and standard cognitive tests alone; and b) TUG and Verbal Fluency performed separately. Patients (n = 172, age range 39–91 years, 78 women) with SCI or MCI performed TUGdt tests, including 1) naming animals and 2) reciting months backwards, and clinical cognitive tests at baseline. Diagnoses were identified at follow-up after 2.5 years. Logistic regression was used to predict dementia incidence, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and c-statistics for predictive capacity. Analyses were stratified by age and gender. At follow-up, 51 patients had developed dementia. The TUGdt result “animals/10 s” was associated with dementia incidence (standardized odds ratio (OR) = 4.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.28–7.23, p < 0.001), more so among patients under the median age of 72 years (standardized OR = 19.4, 95% CI 3.53–106.17, p < 0.001). TUGdt “animals/10 s” improved dementia prediction compared to demographic characteristics and standard tests alone (c-statistics 0.88 to 0.94) and single-task tests (c-statistics 0.86 to 0.89), but only in the younger patient group. TUGdt has the potential to become a useful tool for dementia prediction.

scholarly journals Neural Inefficiency During Dual-Task Walking in Older Adults: The Moderating Effect of Brain Morphology

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 288-288
Author(s):  
Daliah Ross ◽  
Mark Wagshul ◽  
Meltem Izzetoglu ◽  
Roee Holtzer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Functional Decline ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Moderating Effect ◽  
Brain Morphology ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract Aging is accompanied by changes in cognitive, physical, and brain function. Research has found increased activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in dual-task-walk (DTW) as compared to single-task walk (STW) due to increased cognitive demands in the former condition. Older adults have more difficulty with DTW than younger adults, and difficulty with DTW has been found to predict functional decline in aging. As the population gets older, it is important to identify biomarkers predictive of functional decline. The neural inefficiency hypothesis posits that some people, including older adults, utilize more neural resources than others without showing benefits to behavioral performance. We examined the moderating effect of cortical thickness on PFC activation from STW to DTW. We predicted that less cortical thickness would be associated with increased PFC activation but without benefit to behavioral performance, to compensate for limited neural resources. Participants were 55 right-handed community-residing healthy older adults (mean age = 74.84 + 4.97; %female = 49.1). Cortical thickness was measured via MRI. Activation in the PFC was measured via functional near-infrared spectroscopy-derived (fNIRS) oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) levels. Analyses controlled for behavioral performance. Linear-mixed-effects models revealed that cortical thickness in several brain regions significantly moderated the increase in HbO2 from STW to DTW, p &lt; 0.01. Thinner cortex, in regions implicated in walking and cognition, was associated with a greater increase in HbO2 levels. Supporting the neural inefficiency hypothesis, results suggest that older adults with greater cortical thinning over-activate the PFC during attention-demanding walking.

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal gait parameters obtained from foot-worn inertial sensors are reliable in healthy adults in single- and dual-task conditions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Soulard ◽  
J. Vaillant ◽  
R. Balaguier ◽  
N. Vuillerme
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Gait Symmetry ◽  
Symmetry Index ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
Gait Parameters ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Absolute Reliability

AbstractInertial measurement units (IMUs) are increasingly popular and may be usable in clinical routine to assess gait. However, assessing their intra-session reliability is crucial and has not been tested with foot-worn sensors in healthy participants. The aim of this study was to assess the intra-session reliability of foot-worn IMUs for measuring gait parameters in healthy adults. Twenty healthy participants were enrolled in the study and performed the 10-m walk test in single- and dual-task ('carrying a full cup of water') conditions, three trials per condition. IMUs were used to assess spatiotemporal gait parameters, gait symmetry parameters (symmetry index (SI) and symmetry ratio (SR)), and dual task effects parameters. The relative and the absolute reliability were calculated for each gait parameter. Results showed that spatiotemporal gait parameters measured with foot-worn inertial sensors were reliable; symmetry gait parameters relative reliability was low, and SR showed better absolute reliability than SI; dual task effects were poorly reliable, and taking the mean of the second and the third trials was the most reliable. Foot-worn IMUs are reliable to assess spatiotemporal and symmetry ratio gait parameters but symmetry index and DTE gait parameters reliabilities were low and need to be interpreted with cautious by clinicians and researchers.

scholarly journals Non-Invasive Biomarkers of Musculoskeletal Health with High Discriminant Ability for Age and Gender

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1352
Author(s):  
Sandra Agyapong-Badu ◽  
Martin B. Warner ◽  
Dinesh Samuel ◽  
Vasiliki Koutra ◽  
Maria Stokes
Keyword(s):  
Physical Function ◽  
Peak Flow ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Thigh Muscle ◽  
Musculoskeletal Health ◽  
Timed Up And Go ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Linear Discriminant ◽  
Anterior Thigh ◽  
And Gender

A novel approach to ageing studies assessed the discriminatory ability of a combination of routine physical function tests and novel measures, notably muscle mechanical properties and thigh composition (ultrasound imaging) to classify healthy individuals according to age and gender. The cross-sectional study included 138 community-dwelling, self-reported healthy males and females (65 young, mean age ± SD = 25.7 ± 4.8 years; 73 older, 74.9 ± 5.9 years). Handgrip strength; quadriceps strength; respiratory peak flow; timed up and go; stair climbing time; anterior thigh tissue thickness; muscle stiffness, tone, elasticity (Myoton technology), and self-reported health related quality of life (SF36) were assessed. Stepwise feature selection using cross-validation with linear discriminant analysis was used to classify cases based on criterion variable derived from known effects of age on physical function. A model was trained and features selected using 126 cases with 0.92 accuracy (95% CI = 0.86–0.96; Kappa = 0.89). The final model included five features (peak flow, timed up and go, biceps brachii elasticity, anterior thigh muscle thickness, and percentage thigh muscle) with high sensitivity (0.82–0.96) and specificity (0.94–0.99). The most sensitive novel biomarkers require no volition, highlighting potentially useful tests for screening and monitoring effects of interventions on musculoskeletal health for vulnerable older people with pain or cognitive impairment.

Entrepreneurship in regions: differentiated impacts of the socio cultural and gender types

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Mancilla ◽  
José Ernesto Amorós
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Fear Of Failure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reference Models ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Secondary City

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the differentiated impact of factors that influence the propensity to entrepreneur in a sample of people in Chile. A distinction is made between individuals that live in primary cities and secondary cities. The differentiating factors are socio‐cultural aspects (reference models – positive examples of entrepreneurs – and perception of social fear of failure) and the gender of the individual. Design/methodology/approach For the research data from the survey used in Chile by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for the years 2010 and 2011 were used. A logit model was used to determine the differentiated impact of the analysed factors and interactions were done using the method proposed by Corneliâen and Sonderhof (2009). Findings These showed that the fact that an individual lives in a secondary city decreases his entrepreneurship probability. The positive impact that the reference models have is weaker in women. Contrary to what was expected, the negative impact of the fear of failure perception is weaker in women. Practical implications These results have the implications to suggest focused public policies and differentiations that consider the socio‐cultural, territorial (focused in cities) and gender aspects. Originality/value The research contributes by giving empirical evidence of the existence of the negative impact of living in a secondary city and of differentiated effects of socio‐cultural factors from the gender perspective.

Telephone Conversations Affect the Executive but not the Alerting or Orienting Network

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melina Kunar ◽  
Derrick Watson ◽  
Rhiannon Richards ◽  
Daniel Gunnell
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Attentional Networks ◽  
Attention Tasks ◽  
Conflict Effect ◽  
The Individual

Previous work has shown that talking on a mobile phone leads to an impairment of visual attention. Gunnell et al. (2020) investigated the locus of these dual-task impairments and found that although phone conversations led to cognitive delays in response times, other mechanisms underlying particular selective attention tasks were unaffected. Here we investigated which attentional networks, if any, were impaired by having a phone conversation. We used the Attentional Network Task (ANT) to evaluate performance of the alerting, orienting and executive attentional networks, both in conditions where people were engaged in a conversation and where they were silent. Two experiments showed that there was a robust delay in response across all three networks. However, at the individual network level, holding a conversation did not influence the size of the alerting or orienting effects but it did reduce the size of the conflict effect within the executive network. The findings suggest that holding a conversation can reduce the overall speed of responding and, via its influence on the executive network, can reduce the amount of information that can be processed from the environment.

A-9 Examining Neural Variability during Dual-Task Walking and Cortical Thickness in Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1048-1048
Author(s):  
Daliah Ross ◽  
Mark E Wagshul ◽  
Meltem Izzetoglu ◽  
Roee Holtzer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Mobility Impairments ◽  
Neural Variability

Abstract Objective Greater intraindividual variability (IIV) in behavioral and cognitive performance is a risk factor for adverse outcomes but research concerning IIV in neural signal is scarce. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we showed that IIV in oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) levels in the prefrontal cortex increased from single task (Single-Task-Walk–STW; Single-Task-Alpha–STA) to Dual-Task-Walk (DTW) conditions in older adults. Herein, we predicted that, consistent with the neural inefficiency hypothesis, reduced cortical thickness would be associated with greater increases in IIV in fNIRS-derived HbO2 from single tasks to DTW when adjusting for behavioral performance. Method Participants were right-handed older adults without dementia recruited from the community (N = 55; M(SD) age = 74.84(4.97); %female = 49.1). Neuroimaging included fNIRS for HbO2 levels in the prefrontal cortex during tasks and MRI for cortical thickness. IIV was operationalized using the SD of fNIRS-derived HbO2 observations assessed during a 30-s interval in each experimental condition. Results Moderation analyses, assessed through linear mixed effects models, revealed that in several frontal (p &lt; 0.02), parietal (p &lt; 0.02), temporal (p &lt; 0.01), and occipital (p &lt; 0.01) regions, thinner cortex was associated with greater increases in HbO2 IIV from the single tasks to DTW. Conclusion Reduced cortical thickness was associated with inefficient increases in IIV in fNIRS-derived HbO2 from single tasks to dual-task walking. Worse IIV in gait performance under DTW predicts adverse mobility outcomes. Reduced cortical thickness and worse IIV of fNIRS-derived HbO2 during DTW are possible brain mechanisms that explain the risk of developing mobility impairments in aging and disease populations.

scholarly journals ‘'Sex Changes'? Paradigm Shifts in ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’ following the Gender Recognition Act?’

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Whittle ◽  
Lewis Turner
Keyword(s):  
Sex Change ◽  
Gender Recognition ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Gender Variance ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Legal Understanding

Gender transformations are normatively understood as somatic, based on surgical reassignment, where the sexed body is aligned with the gender identity of the individual through genital surgery – hence the common lexicon ‘sex change surgery’. We suggest that the UK Gender Recognition Act 2004 challenges what constitutes a ‘sex change’ through the Act's definitions and also the conditions within which legal ‘recognition’ is permitted. The sex/gender distinction, (where sex normatively refers to the sexed body, and gender, to social identity) is demobilised both literally and legally. This paper discusses the history of medico-socio-legal definitions of sex have been developed through decision making processes when courts have been faced with people with gender variance and, in particular, the implications of the Gender Recognition Act for our contemporary legal understanding of sex. We ask, and attempt to answer, has ‘sex’ changed?

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