Dijkstra, B.W. (Bauke) (2014) The Effects of Age on Postural Motor Learning in Compensatory Stepping. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Introduction: Falls are common in healthy older adults and lead to a reduced quality of life and place an economic burden on society. The ability to perform a compensatory step after an external perturbation is critical to avoid falls and this ability is impaired in healthy old adults compared healthy young adults. Thus, improving compensatory steps in healthy old adults may be critical to reduce falls. However, little is known about the degree to which healthy adults can adapt compensatory steps. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how compensatory steps after external perturbations are adapted (within one training session), retained (over 24 hours) and transferred (to stepping in a different direction) in healthy old and young adults. Methods: Centre of mass displacement, step characteristics and muscle activation latencies were measured to investigate postural control during compensatory stepping in response to repeated exposure to external perturbations. Results: Healthy old adults can decrease CoM displacement over repeated exposure to external perturbations in both the anterior and posterior direction and can retain the adaptations made, where young adults only show adaptation and retention in forward stepping. Both groups did not show transfer of adaptations to stepping in a different direction. Conclusion: Healthy old and young adults are able to improve postural control during compensatory stepping and can retain the adaptations made. This study provides important insight in the effect of age on postural motor learning in compensatory stepping. Key words: Aging, postural motor learning, compensatory stepping, fall prevention
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Peterson, D.S. and Kamsma, Y.P.T. and Horak, F.B. |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Mar 2022 07:30 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Mar 2022 07:30 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3011 |
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