The altered vestibular-evoked myogenic and whole-body postural responses in old men during standing

Age-related decrements within the sensorimotor system may lead to alterations and impairments in postural control, but a link to a vestibular mechanism is unclear. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether vestibular control of standing balance is altered with adult aging. Eight old...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental gerontology 2014-12, Vol.60, p.120-128
Main Authors: Dalton, Brian H., Blouin, Jean-Sébastien, Allen, Matti D., Rice, Charles L., Inglis, J. Timothy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Aging - physiology
Electric Stimulation
Electromyography
Galvanic vestibular stimulation
Humans
Male
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Postural Balance - physiology
Reflex - physiology
Sensorimotor
Standing balance
Stochastic Processes
Vestibule, Labyrinth - physiology
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Age-related decrements within the sensorimotor system may lead to alterations and impairments in postural control, but a link to a vestibular mechanism is unclear. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether vestibular control of standing balance is altered with adult aging. Eight old (~77years) and eight young (~26years) men stood without aids on a commercially available force plate with their head turned to the right, arms relaxed at their sides and eyes closed while receiving stochastic vestibular stimuli (0–25Hz, root mean square amplitude=0.85mA). Surface electromyography signals were sampled from the left soleus, medial gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior. Whole-body balance, as measured by the anteroposterior forces and muscle responses, was quantified using frequency (coherence and gain functions) and time (cumulant density function) domain correlations with the vestibular stimuli. Old men exhibited a compressed frequency response of the vestibular reflex with a greater relative gain at lower frequencies for the plantar flexors and anteroposterior forces than young. In the time domain, the peak amplitude of the short latency response was 45–64% lower for the plantar flexors and anteroposterior forces (p≤0.05) in the old than young, but not for the tibialis anterior (p=0.21). The old men had a 190% and 31% larger medium latency response for only the tibialis anterior and anteroposterior forces, respectively, than young (p≤0.01). A strong correlation between the tibialis anterior and the force response was also detected (r=0.80, p
ISSN:0531-5565
1873-6815
DOI:10.1016/j.exger.2014.09.020