The effect of fear of falling on prefrontal cortex activation and efficiency during walking in older adults.

ABSTRACT: Neural inefficiency is inferred when higher brain activations are associated with similar or worse performance. Improved neural efficiency is achieved when task-related brain activations are reduced after practice. No information is available on the effect of fear-of-falling (FOF) on brain activation during walking. We hypothesized that the presence of FOF would be associated with neural inefficiency and with a delay in improving neural efficiency during dual-task walking. Task conditions included single-task walk (STW), Alpha (cognitive interference), and dual-task walk (DTW). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-derived HbO2 in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) was used to quantify task-related changes in brain activation. Practice included three repeated counterbalanced trials for each task. Participants with FOF (n?=?19; mean age =?79.84?±?6.01 years; %female =?68.42) and without FOF (n?=?56; mean age =?76.73?±?6.39 years; %female =?44.64) were included. The presence of FOF was associated with slower stride velocity (estimate =?-?12.354; p = 0.0154) and with greater increases in PFC HbO2 from STW to DTW (estimate =?0.303, p?=?0.0009) and from Alpha to DTW (estimate =?0.387, p?

SUBMITTER: Holtzer R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6423209 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature