Declined Physical Function And Cortical Activation In Older Adults During Cs-pfp10 Compared To Young Adults

Abstract

PURPOSE: To examine electrocortical activation during the Continuous Scale Physical Function Performance 10 (CS-PFP10) task in older adults compared to young adults. METHODS: Twenty older (OLD; 75.40 ± 7.32 yrs, 70.33 ± 18.23 kg, 162.87 ± 7.55 cm) and twenty healthy young (YOUNG; 19.88 ± 1.72 yrs, 66.52 ± 14.22 kg, 167.50 ± 10.22 cm) adults volunteered. The prefrontal (Fz), primary motor (Cz), somatosensory (Pz), and visual (Oz) theta (4-8 Hz) and alpha-2 (10-12 Hz) electrocortical activations (μV2/Hz) using a mobile electroencephalograph (EEG) were quantified during the CS-PFP10. Independent t-tests were used to analyze electrocortical activation and PF score differences between groups. RESULTS: The OLD had lower Fz, Cz, and Oz theta powers (Fz: 38.18 ± 3.26 vs. 41.88 ± 2.35, p < .001; Cz: 38.09 ± 4.20 vs. 40.79 ± 1.69, p = .002; Oz: 37.65 ± 3.36 vs. 41.61 ± 2.39, p < .001), alpha-2 powers (Fz: 36.64 ± 3.61 vs. 39.38 ± 2.68, p = .002; Cz: 36.97 ± 4.34 vs. 40.79 ± 3.41, p = .02; Oz:35.94 ± 3.74 vs. 38.34 ± 2.80, p = .007) and PF score (50.05 ± 14.20 vs. 65.33 ± 14.50, p < .001) compared to the YOUNG during the CS-PFP10 tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal that less frontal, motor, and visual theta and alpha-2 power and PF scores in the OLD compared to the YOUNG. While less prefrontal, motor, and visual theta powers are thought to be declined goal-directed attention/decision-making ability, motor performance, and visual input accordingly, less alpha-2 power in these cortices are suggested as enhanced behavioral neural processing associated with visuospatial attention. This may indicate that older adults have different motor control strategy compared to young adults. As visuospatial predominant neural processing can result in some delay in motor control, our findings may explain why elderly population is prone to fall risk during daily living tasks.