Effects of aging and tactile stochastic resonance on postural performance and postural control in a sensory conflict task

Postural control in certain situations depends on functioning of tactile or proprioceptive receptors and their respective dynamic integration. Loss of sensory functioning can lead to increased risk of falls in challenging postural tasks, especially in older adults. Stochastic resonance, a concept de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Somatosensory & motor research 2015-04, Vol.32 (2), p.128-135
Main Authors: Dettmer, Marius, Pourmoghaddam, Amir, Lee, Beom-Chan, Layne, Charles S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Aging - physiology
balance
Female
foot sole vibration
Humans
Male
Postural Balance - physiology
Posture - physiology
Proprioception - physiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Statistics, Nonparametric
Stochastic Processes
stochastic resonance
tactile receptors
Touch - physiology
Vibration
Young Adult
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Summary:Postural control in certain situations depends on functioning of tactile or proprioceptive receptors and their respective dynamic integration. Loss of sensory functioning can lead to increased risk of falls in challenging postural tasks, especially in older adults. Stochastic resonance, a concept describing better function of systems with addition of optimal levels of noise, has shown to be beneficial for balance performance in certain populations and simple postural tasks. In this study, we tested the effects of aging and a tactile stochastic resonance stimulus (TSRS) on balance of adults in a sensory conflict task. Nineteen older (71-84 years of age) and younger participants (22-29 years of age) stood on a force plate for repeated trials of 20 s duration, while foot sole stimulation was either turned on or off, and the visual surrounding was sway-referenced. Balance performance was evaluated by computing an Equilibrium Score (ES) and anterior-posterior sway path length (APPlength). For postural control evaluation, strategy scores and approximate entropy (ApEn) were computed. Repeated-measures ANOVA, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and Mann-Whitney U-tests were conducted for statistical analysis. Our results showed that balance performance differed between older and younger adults as indicated by ES (p = 0.01) and APPlength (0.01), and addition of vibration only improved performance in the older group significantly (p = 0.012). Strategy scores differed between both age groups, whereas vibration only affected the older group (p = 0.025). Our results indicate that aging affects specific postural outcomes and that TSRS is beneficial for older adults in a visual sensory conflict task, but more research is needed to investigate the effectiveness in individuals with more severe balance problems, for example, due to neuropathy.
ISSN:0899-0220
1369-1651
DOI:10.3109/08990220.2015.1004045