Article

There are conflicting results regarding the effect of aging on postural
prioritization. The present study investigated balance recovery performance of
young and old adults following unexpected gait perturbations in a dual task
condition. Thirty-two young and 30 elderly male subjects were assigned to either
control or dual task group. After baseline assessment, an unexpected gait
perturbation was induced by a sudden change of surface rigidity. The dual task
groups performed a mental arithmetic task. Dynamic stability was quantified based
on the 'extrapolated center of mass' concept. The margin of stability decreased
significantly at touchdown of the recovery leg following the unexpected
perturbation (P) compared with baseline (base), yet irrespective of cognitive
load (base: -4.63cm; P: -13.32cm; p<0.05). The number of errors in the cognitive
task increased significantly (base: 0.13; P: 0.48; p<0.05) in both age groups.
Since the stability performance was unaffected by additional cognitive load,
whereas the cognitive task performance declined following the perturbation in
both groups, it is concluded that postural prioritization occurs independent of
age in response to unexpected gait perturbations.
CI - Copyright (c) 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Langue : ANGLAIS