Motor Flexibility in Multidirectional Balance Control

Summary

The goal of this observational study is to learn about how older adults (those 65 and above) manage to maintain balance when experiencing a slip or trip while walking. The study is especially interested in how quickly and flexibly adjustments to movement can be made to avoid falling. The main questions this study aims to answer are:

* How does the ability to adjust movements quickly, also known as "motor flexibility," affect the chances of recovering from a slip or trip?
* Can targeted training improve this ability in older adults, making falls less likely? Participants will walk on a specially designed treadmill that can simulate slips and trips and undergo a training program designed to improve the ability to adjust movements quickly.

Researchers will compare older adults to younger adults to see if age affects the ability to adjust movements quickly and recover balance after a slip or trip. Researcher's will also compare the performance of older adults before and after the training program to see if balance recovery improves.

Conditions

• Falling

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Multidirectional Perturbations for Balance Control Assessment (60 perturbations)

The intervention involves exposing participants to a series of 60 controlled multidirectional perturbations while walking on a treadmill. These perturbations are delivered in varying directions and magnitudes to simulate real-world conditions that might lead to a loss of balance, such as slips or trips. Participants will undergo this series during multiple experimental sessions referred to as epochs. The complete intervention consists of a treadmill familiarization period followed by 5 epochs to assess motor flexibility. Each epoch is followed by a rest period to ensure participant safety and minimize fatigue.

BEHAVIORAL

Multidirectional Perturbations for Balance Control Assessment (150 perturbations)

The intervention involves exposing participants to a series of 150 controlled multidirectional perturbations while walking on a treadmill. These perturbations are delivered in varying directions and magnitudes to simulate real-world conditions that might lead to a loss of balance, such as slips or trips. Participants will undergo this series during multiple experimental sessions referred to as epochs. The complete intervention consists of a treadmill familiarization period followed by seven epochs. The first five epochs will deliver multidirectional perturbations to assess modifiability of motor flexibility, followed by a sixth epoch to test generalization to novel perturbation directions while walking. Finally there will be a seventh epoch of perturbations while standing to test generalization from walking balance control to standing balance control. Each epoch is followed by a rest period to ensure participant safety and minimize fatigue.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Nebraska

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nathaniel H Hunt, PhD · University of Nebraska

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

19 Years

Max Age

79 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-07-01

Primary Completion

2029-06-30

Completion

2029-06-30