Citation

Mileti I, Taborri J, Rossi S, Del Prete Z, Paoloni M, Suppa A, Palermo E. Sensors (Basel) 2020; 20(1): s20010063.

Affiliation

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/s20010063

PMID

31861945

Abstract

Maintaining balance stability while turning in a quasi-static stance and/or in dynamic motion requires proper recovery mechanisms to manage sudden center-of-mass displacement. Furthermore, falls during turning are among the main concerns of community-dwelling elderly population. This study investigates the effect of aging on reactive postural responses to continuous yaw perturbations on a cohort of 10 young adults (mean age 28 ± 3 years old) and 10 older adults (mean age 61 ± 4 years old). Subjects underwent external continuous yaw perturbations provided by the RotoBit^1D platform. Different conditions of visual feedback (eyes opened and eyes closed) and perturbation intensity, i.e., sinusoidal rotations on the horizontal plane at different frequencies (0.2 Hz and 0.3 Hz), were applied. Kinematics of axial body segments was gathered using three inertial measurement units. In order to measure reactive postural responses, we measured body-absolute and joint absolute rotations, center-of-mass displacement, body sway, and inter-joint coordination. Older adults showed significant reduction in horizontal rotations of body segments and joints, as well as in center-of-mass displacement. Furthermore, older adults manifested a greater variability in reactive postural responses than younger adults. The abnormal reactive postural responses observed in older adults might contribute to the well-known age-related difficulty in dealing with balance control during turning.

Language: en

Keywords

aging; dynamic posturography; kinematics; postural stability; reactive postural responses; yaw perturbation