Citation

Bolton DAE, Richardson JK. Front. Neurol. 2022; 13: 853787.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fneur.2022.853787

PMID

35432150

PMCID

PMC9005868

Abstract

The fact that weak leg muscles, impaired vision, numb feet, or insufficient blood pressure can predispose someone to a fall is unsurprising. Consequently, such factors are a standard part of clinical fall risk assessments. However, the relationship between cognitive ability and falls (1-3) is less readily appreciated. And even less intuitive are findings that executive function tests which emphasize inhibitory control, such as a go/no-go or Stroop task, are especially predictive of falls in community dwelling older adults (4-7). This begs the question: "How does an ability to say "green" when the word "red" is written in green ink on the Stroop evaluation prevent a fall?" Although not immediately clear, the fog lifts when we consider that inhibitory control is a prerequisite for behavioral flexibility (8). A capacity to inhibit implies that we are no longer at the mercy of a highly automatic response and can instead abort that response allowing adaptation to novel and complex scenarios on short notice. Stopping automatic behavioral tendencies in daily life is critical when such tendencies put us in harm's way and must be quickly modified (e.g., preventing a step that is destined to land on a slippery or unstable surface). Recent insights have shed light on how short latency inhibitory control plays a role in resisting a fall, and in this paper, we advocate for the inclusion of this important concept in clinical assessments and interventions, and intensification of research efforts into its underlying mechanisms...

Language: en

Keywords

aging; falls; balance; response inhibition; stopping