TY - JOUR
T1 - Prefrontal Cortical Activity During Preferred and Fast Walking in Young and Older Adults
T2 - An fNIRS Study
AU - Belli, Vinicius de
AU - Orcioli-Silva, Diego
AU - Beretta, Victor Spiandor
AU - Vitório, Rodrigo
AU - Zampier, Vinicius Cavassano
AU - Nóbrega-Sousa, Priscila
AU - Conceição, Núbia Ribeiro da
AU - Gobbi, Lilian Teresa Bucken
N1 - This study was supported by theSa ̃o Paulo Research Foundation(FAPESP [grantnumbers#2017/23476-1, #2016/21499-1];the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation ofGraduate Education (CAPES)[Finance Code 001];
and theNational Council for Scientific andTechnologicalDevelopment(CNPq [grantnumber429549/2018-0].
PY - 2021/10/1
Y1 - 2021/10/1
N2 - Age-related changes may affect the performance during fast walking speed. Although, several studies have been focused on the contribution of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during challenging walking tasks, the neural mechanism underling fast walking speed in older people remain poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of aging on PFC activity during overground walking at preferred and fast speeds. Twenty-five older adults (67.37 ± 5.31 years) and 24 young adults (22.70 ± 1.30 years) walked overground in two conditions: preferred speed and fast walking speed. Five trials were performed for each condition. A wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system measured PFC activity. Gait parameters were evaluated using the GAITRite system. Overall, older adults presented higher PFC activity than young adults in both conditions. Speed-related change in PFC activity was observed for older adults, but not for young adults. Older adults significantly increased activity in the left PFC from the preferred to fast walking condition whereas young adults had similar levels of PFC activity across conditions. Our findings suggest that older adults need to recruit additional prefrontal cognitive resources to control walking, indicating a compensatory mechanism. In addition, left PFC seems to be involved in the modulation of gait speed in older adults.
AB - Age-related changes may affect the performance during fast walking speed. Although, several studies have been focused on the contribution of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during challenging walking tasks, the neural mechanism underling fast walking speed in older people remain poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of aging on PFC activity during overground walking at preferred and fast speeds. Twenty-five older adults (67.37 ± 5.31 years) and 24 young adults (22.70 ± 1.30 years) walked overground in two conditions: preferred speed and fast walking speed. Five trials were performed for each condition. A wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system measured PFC activity. Gait parameters were evaluated using the GAITRite system. Overall, older adults presented higher PFC activity than young adults in both conditions. Speed-related change in PFC activity was observed for older adults, but not for young adults. Older adults significantly increased activity in the left PFC from the preferred to fast walking condition whereas young adults had similar levels of PFC activity across conditions. Our findings suggest that older adults need to recruit additional prefrontal cognitive resources to control walking, indicating a compensatory mechanism. In addition, left PFC seems to be involved in the modulation of gait speed in older adults.
KW - aging
KW - cortical activation
KW - gait
KW - oxygenated hemoglobin
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114493576&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.08.019
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.08.019
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85114493576
SN - 0306-4522
VL - 473
SP - 81
EP - 89
JO - Neuroscience
JF - Neuroscience
ER -