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Age-Related Changes in the Neural Control of Standing Balance

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Locomotion and Posture in Older Adults

Abstract

Controlling body sway while standing is an active process involving lower as well as higher neural centers. This chapter examines how the central nervous system controls undisturbed standing balance and summarizes the current knowledge concerning the effects of task difficulty and old age on postural control of standing. There is an age-related reorganization of neural control of standing, with decreased efficacy of Ia afferents to activate spinal motor neurons, increased cortical activation and corticospinal excitability, and reduced intracortical inhibition. Age does not affect the motor control strategy of reducing intracortical inhibition with increasing postural challenge. However, the threshold for down-modulation decreases with aging. It thus seems that motor cortical involvement in the control of standing balance becomes more prominent with age and postural task difficulty. Future studies will determine if it is beneficial and necessary through interventions to reduce the cortical involvement in the control of standing balance in healthy old adults especially if this involvement should increase in old adults with a history of falls.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by startup funds provided by the University Medical Center Groningen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Human Movement Sciences, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Selma Papegaaij & Tibor Hortobágyi

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  1. Selma Papegaaij
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  2. Tibor Hortobágyi
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Correspondence to Selma Papegaaij .

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  1. Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Department of Physical Education, Human Movement Research Laboratory – MOVI-LAB, Campus Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil

    Fabio Augusto Barbieri

  2. Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Department of Physical Education, Posture and Gait Studies Lab (LEPLO), Campus Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil

    Rodrigo Vitório

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Papegaaij, S., Hortobágyi, T. (2017). Age-Related Changes in the Neural Control of Standing Balance. In: Barbieri, F., Vitório, R. (eds) Locomotion and Posture in Older Adults. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48980-3_27

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