Older adults demonstrate interlimb transfer of reactive gait adaptations to repeated unpredictable gait perturbations

AbstractThe ability to rapidly adjust gait to cope with unexpected mechanical perturbations declines with ageing. Previous studies however, have not ensured that pre-perturbation gait stability was equivalent, meaning that differences in unperturbed gait stability may have influenced the outcomes, which this study addresses. We also examine if interlimb transfer of gait adaptations are observed in healthy older adults, potentially driven by the increased motor error experienced due to their reduced ability to cope with the perturbations. 30 young and 28 older healthy adults experienced ten unpredictable treadmill belt accelerations (the first and last applied to the right leg, the others to the left) during walking at their stability-normalised walking speeds (young: 1.32±0.07m/s; older: 1.31±0.13m/s). Using kinematic data, we assessed the margins of stability during unperturbed walking and the first eight post-perturbation recovery steps. Older adults required three more steps to recover during the first perturbation to each leg than the young adults. Yet, after repeated perturbations of the left leg, older adults required only one more step to recover. Interestingly, for the untrained right leg, we found an improvement of three steps in the recovery of the older adults, indicating interlimb transfer of the improvements. Age differences in reactive gait stability remain even when participants’ walk with equivalent stability. Furthermore, we show that healthy older adults can transfer improvements in balance recovery made during repeated perturbations to one limb to their recovery following a perturbation to the untrained limb.

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Older adults demonstrate interlimb transfer of reactive gait adaptations to repeated unpredictable gait perturbations

GeroScience ◽

10.1007/s11357-019-00130-x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 39-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Christopher McCrum ◽

Kiros Karamanidis ◽

Lotte Grevendonk ◽

Wiebren Zijlstra ◽

Kenneth Meijer

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Groups ◽

Gait Stability ◽

Kinematic Data ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Age Related ◽

The Right ◽

Walking Speeds ◽

Treadmill Belt ◽

Gait Perturbations

AbstractThe ability to rapidly adjust gait to cope with unexpected mechanical perturbations declines with ageing. Previous studies, however, have not ensured that gait stability pre-perturbation was equivalent across participants or age groups which may have influenced the outcomes. In this study, we investigate if age-related differences in stability following gait perturbations remain when all participants walk with equivalent stability. We also examine if interlimb transfer of gait adaptations are observed in healthy older adults, by examining if adaptation to repeated perturbations of one leg can benefit stability recovery when the other leg is perturbed. During walking at their stability-normalised walking speeds (young: 1.32 ± 0.07 m/s; older: 1.31 ± 0.13 m/s; normalised to an average margin of stability of 0.05 m), 30 young and 28 older healthy adults experienced ten unpredictable treadmill belt accelerations (the first and last applied to the right leg, the others to the left leg). Using kinematic data, we assessed the margins of stability during unperturbed walking and the first eight post-perturbation recovery steps. Older adults required three more steps to recover during the first perturbation to each leg than the young adults. Yet, after repeated perturbations of the left leg, older adults required only one more step to recover. Interestingly, for the untrained right leg, the older adults could regain stability with three fewer steps, indicating interlimb transfer of the improvements. Age differences in reactive gait stability remain even when participants’ walk with equivalent stability. Furthermore, we show that healthy older adults can transfer improvements in balance recovery made during repeated perturbations to one limb to their recovery following a perturbation to the untrained limb.

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Gait Parameter Adjustments for Walking on a Treadmill at Preferred, Slower, and Faster Speeds in Older Adults with Down Syndrome

Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research ◽

10.1155/2012/782671 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Beth A. Smith ◽

Masayoshi Kubo ◽

Beverly D. Ulrich

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Down Syndrome ◽

Stride Frequency ◽

Gait Patterns ◽

Gait Stability ◽

Foot Placement ◽

Gait Parameters ◽

Younger Age ◽

All Speeds ◽

Walking Speeds

The combined effects of ligamentous laxity, hypotonia, and decrements associated with aging lead to stability-enhancing foot placement adaptations during routine overground walking at a younger age in adults with Down syndrome (DS) compared to their peers with typical development (TD). Our purpose here was to examine real-time adaptations in older adults with DS by testing their responses to walking on a treadmill at their preferred speed and at speeds slower and faster than preferred. We found that older adults with DS were able to adapt their gait to slower and faster than preferred treadmill speeds; however, they maintained their stability-enhancing foot placements at all speeds compared to their peers with TD. All adults adapted their gait patterns similarly in response to faster and slower than preferred treadmill-walking speeds. They increased stride frequency and stride length, maintained step width, and decreased percent stance as treadmill speed increased. Older adults with DS, however, adjusted their stride frequencies significantly less than their peers with TD. Our results show that older adults with DS have the capacity to adapt their gait parameters in response to different walking speeds while also supporting the need for intervention to increase gait stability.

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Aging and Sensitivity to Illusory Target Motion With or Without Secondary Tasks

Multisensory Research ◽

10.1163/22134808-00002596 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (3-4) ◽

pp. 227-249 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Alix L. de Dieuleveult ◽

Anne-Marie Brouwer ◽

Petra C. Siemonsma ◽

Jan B. F. van Erp ◽

Eli Brenner

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Visual Information ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Older Individuals ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Secondary Tasks ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

The Right ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

Background Motion

Older individuals seem to find it more difficult to ignore inaccurate sensory cues than younger individuals. We examined whether this could be quantified using an interception task. Twenty healthy young adults (age 18–34) and twenty-four healthy older adults (age 60–82) were asked to tap on discs that were moving downwards on a screen with their finger. Moving the background to the left made the discs appear to move more to the right. Moving the background to the right made them appear to move more to the left. The discs disappeared before the finger reached the screen, so participants had to anticipate how the target would continue to move. We examined how misjudging the disc’s motion when the background moves influenced tapping. Participants received veridical feedback about their performance, so their sensitivity to the illusory motion indicates to what extent they could ignore the task-irrelevant visual information. We expected older adults to be more sensitive to the illusion than younger adults. To investigate whether sensorimotor or cognitive load would increase this sensitivity, we also asked participants to do the task while standing on foam or counting tones. Background motion influenced older adults more than younger adults. The secondary tasks did not increase the background’s influence. Older adults might be more sensitive to the moving background because they find it more difficult to ignore irrelevant sensory information in general, but they may rely more on vision because they have less reliable proprioceptive and vestibular information.

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Few Structural Brain Changes Associated With Moderate-Intensity Interval Training and Low-Intensity Continuous Training in a Randomized Trial of Fitness and Older Adults

Journal of Aging and Physical Activity ◽

10.1123/japa.2019-0352 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Renée Martin-Willett ◽

Jarrod E. Ellingson ◽

Jill Fries ◽

Timothy Helmuth ◽

Hollis Karoly ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Exercise Intervention ◽

Interval Training ◽

Training Condition ◽

Moderate Intensity ◽

Continuous Training ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Low Intensity ◽

The Right

This study utilized a randomized control trial to examine whether structural changes in the precuneus, insula, caudate, hippocampus, and putamen were related to exercise. A total of 197 healthy older adults with no evidence of dementia participated in moderate-intensity interval training or low-intensity continuous training for 16 weeks. Size decreased in the right hippocampus such that the effect of time was significant but the interaction with condition was not. For the left hippocampus, size decreased in the low-intensity continuous training condition but increased in the moderate-intensity continuous training plus interval training condition at the trend level. Finally, there was a significant time-by-condition interaction such that the thickness of the left insula increased for low-intensity continuous training and decreased for moderate-intensity continuous training plus interval training. Few structural changes were associated with the exercise intervention. Future studies should examine the effects of exercise on brain structure in high-risk or clinical populations for a longer period of time.

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Regional age differences in gray matter diffusivity among healthy older adults

Brain Imaging and Behavior ◽

10.1007/s11682-015-9383-7 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 203-211 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Lauren E. Salminen ◽

Thomas E. Conturo ◽

David H. Laidlaw ◽

Ryan P. Cabeen ◽

Erbil Akbudak ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Healthy Older Adults

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Gauging Working Memory Capacity From Differential Resting Brain Oscillations in Older Individuals With A Wearable Device

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnagi.2021.625006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 ◽

Author(s):

Soheil Borhani ◽

Xiaopeng Zhao ◽

Margaret R. Kelly ◽

Karah E. Gottschalk ◽

Fengpei Yuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Memory Retrieval ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Older Individuals ◽

Brain Oscillations ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Eyes Closed ◽

The Right

Working memory is a core cognitive function and its deficits is one of the most common cognitive impairments. Reduced working memory capacity manifests as reduced accuracy in memory recall and prolonged speed of memory retrieval in older adults. Currently, the relationship between healthy older individuals’ age-related changes in resting brain oscillations and their working memory capacity is not clear. Eyes-closed resting electroencephalogram (rEEG) is gaining momentum as a potential neuromarker of mild cognitive impairments. Wearable and wireless EEG headset measuring key electrophysiological brain signals during rest and a working memory task was utilized. This research’s central hypothesis is that rEEG (e.g., eyes closed for 90 s) frequency and network features are surrogate markers for working memory capacity in healthy older adults. Forty-three older adults’ memory performance (accuracy and reaction times), brain oscillations during rest, and inter-channel magnitude-squared coherence during rest were analyzed. We report that individuals with a lower memory retrieval accuracy showed significantly increased alpha and beta oscillations over the right parietal site. Yet, faster working memory retrieval was significantly correlated with increased delta and theta band powers over the left parietal sites. In addition, significantly increased coherence between the left parietal site and the right frontal area is correlated with the faster speed in memory retrieval. The frontal and parietal dynamics of resting EEG is associated with the “accuracy and speed trade-off” during working memory in healthy older adults. Our results suggest that rEEG brain oscillations at local and distant neural circuits are surrogates of working memory retrieval’s accuracy and processing speed. Our current findings further indicate that rEEG frequency and coherence features recorded by wearable headsets and a brief resting and task protocol are potential biomarkers for working memory capacity. Additionally, wearable headsets are useful for fast screening of cognitive impairment risk.

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Relationship between Balance and Gait Stability in Healthy Older Adults

Journal of Aging and Physical Activity ◽

10.1123/japa.12.1.90 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 90-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

Ronita L. Cromwell ◽

Roberta A. Newton

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Gait Stability ◽

Healthy Older Adults

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Evidence for the use of rotational optic flow cues for locomotor steering in healthy older adults

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00277.2011 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 106 (3) ◽

pp. 1089-1096 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Jessica R. Berard ◽

Joyce Fung ◽

Anouk Lamontagne

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Virtual Environment ◽

Optic Flow ◽

Visual Motion ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Head Mounted Display ◽

Focus Of Expansion ◽

Healthy Young People ◽

The Right ◽

Head Rotations

Optic flow is a powerful visual cue for the control of locomotion. Considerable research has focused on how healthy young people use and perceive optic flow. However, little is known on how older adults use this type of visual motion to control walking. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of young and older adults to adjust their physical walking trajectory in response to a rotation of the optic flow presented in a virtual environment. Ten healthy young adults (mean age 23.49 ± 4.72 yr) and 10 healthy older adults (mean age 76.22 ± 3.11 yr) participated in the study. Subjects were instructed to walk straight in a virtual environment viewed within a head-mounted display unit as they walked overground for 5 m, while the focus of expansion was gradually rotated to the left or the right by 40°. All subjects responded with a similar strategy by rotating their head and body in the direction away from the orientation of the perturbation. The younger subjects achieved almost complete corrections and had very small net heading errors. In contrast, the older adults had delayed and smaller reorientations, particularly in the head, thus showing significantly larger heading errors compared with younger subjects. We conclude that older adults retain the ability to use optic flow to control their walking trajectory, although smaller, delayed head rotations and larger heading errors may indicate an age-dependent effect on sensorimotor coordination.

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Leukoaraiosis and Gray Matter Volume Alteration in Older Adults: The PROOF Study

Frontiers in Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnins.2021.747569 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Sébastien Celle ◽

Claire Boutet ◽

Cédric Annweiler ◽

Romain Ceresetti ◽

Vincent Pichot ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Matter Volume ◽

Fazekas Scale ◽

The Right ◽

The Relationship

Background and Purpose: Leukoaraiosis, also called white matter hyperintensities (WMH), is frequently encountered in the brain of older adults. During aging, gray matter structure is also highly affected. WMH or gray matter defects are commonly associated with a higher prevalence of mild cognitive impairment. However, little is known about the relationship between WMH and gray matter. Our aim was thus to explore the relationship between leukoaraiosis severity and gray matter volume in a cohort of healthy older adults.Methods: Leukoaraiosis was rated in participants from the PROOF cohort using the Fazekas scale. Voxel-based morphometry was performed on brain scans to examine the potential link between WMH and changes of local brain volume. A neuropsychological evaluation including attentional, executive, and memory tests was also performed to explore cognition.Results: Out of 315 75-year-old subjects, 228 had punctuate foci of leukoaraiosis and 62 had begun the confluence of foci. Leukoaraiosis was associated with a decrease of gray matter in the middle temporal gyrus, in the right medial frontal gyrus, and in the left parahippocampal gyrus. It was also associated with decreased performances in memory recall, executive functioning, and depression.Conclusion: In a population of healthy older adults, leukoaraiosis was associated with gray matter defects and reduced cognitive performance. Controlling vascular risk factors and detecting early cerebrovascular disease may prevent, at least in part, dementia onset and progression.

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