Abstract
Age-related changes in brain activation other than in the primary motor cortex are not well known with respect to dynamic balance control. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore age-related differences in the control of static and dynamic postural tasks using fMRI during mental simulation of balance tasks. For this purpose, 16 elderly (72 ± 5 years) and 16 young adults (27 ± 5 years) were asked to mentally simulate a static and a dynamic balance task by motor imagery (MI), action observation (AO), or the combination of AO and MI (AO + MI). Age-related differences were detected in the form of larger brain activations in elderly compared to young participants, especially in the challenging dynamic task when applying AO + MI. Interestingly, when MI (no visual input) was contrasted to AO (visual input), elderly participants revealed deactivation of subcortical areas. The finding that the elderly demonstrated overactivation in mostly cortical areas in challenging postural conditions with visual input (AO + MI and AO) but deactivation in subcortical areas during MI (no vision) may indicate that elderly individuals allocate more cortical resources to the internal representation of dynamic postural tasks. Furthermore, it might be assumed that they depend more strongly on visual input to activate subcortical internal representations.
Highlights
Aging is associated with deterioration of postural control [1]
Structural changes assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) were shown to be correlated with changes in postural control, underlining the importance of these cortical areas for postural control [10]
Activity in brain regions important for postural control was detected in all mental simulation conditions for the dynamic postural task
Summary
Aging is associated with deterioration of postural control [1] This is indicated by an increased variation of the center of pressure, an increase of postural sway, and a higher risk of falls in the elderly [2]. Studies applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) reported the importance of the primary motor cortex (M1) in the control of dynamic and static postural tasks [7, 8] and showed adaptations in M1 that were correlated with adaptations in balance control [9]. Structural changes assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) were shown to be correlated with changes in postural control, underlining the importance of these cortical areas for postural control [10]
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