As we age, maintaining balance requires more effort from the brain.

What is it about?

To avoid falling, the brain needs to integrate a vast amount of information from the environment. The brain pools all this information, but with age it becomes slower, and sensory organs become less efficient. All these age-related modifications, which are perfectly normal, degrade the sensory information that the brain normally uses to help maintain balance, and this degradation hinders balance control. What we’ve found is that older people use their cortex, which is the part of the brain we can control consciously, more when they try to maintain balance, especially in challenging conditions. Until now, studies had hypothesized that the cortex was involved in postural control, mainly because it had been observed that older adults often struggle when performing a cognitive task while maintaining their balance. This explained why they are more at risk of falling when they do two things at the same time, such as talking while walking. Our findings provide the first direct confirmation of an increased involvement of the cortex in balance maintenance as we age. And importantly, the more the cortex was engaged, the less stable participants were, suggesting that cortical involvement kicks in as a compensation mechanism.

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Photo by Age Cymru on Unsplash

Photo by Age Cymru on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our study sheds light on the neural mechanisms underlying age-related balance decline and establishes a direct method for assessing the involvement of the brain in postural control. It also paves the way to study the balance deficits arising from neurological afflictions, such as a stroke or Parkinson's disease. This in turn could lead to targeted interventions to improve the rehabilitation protocols for patients.