Ageing vision and falls: a review

Background: Falls are the leading cause of accidental injury and death among older adults. One of three adults over the age of 65 years falls annually. As the size of elderly population increases, falls become a major concern for public health and there is a pressing need to understand the causes of falls thoroughly. Main body of the abstract: While it is well documented that visual functions such as visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and stereo acuity are correlated with fall risks, little attention has been paid to the relationship between falls and the ability of the visual system to perceive motion in the environment. The omission of visual motion perception in the literature is a critical gap because it is an essential function in maintaining balance. In the present article, we first review existing studies regarding visual risk factors for falls and the effect of ageing vision on falls. We then present a group of phenomena such as vection and sensory reweighting that provide information on how visual motion signals are used to maintain balance. Conclusion: We suggest that the current list of visual risk factors for falls should be elaborated by taking into account the relationship between visual motion perception and balance control

Hemodynamic and behavioral changes in older adults during cognitively demanding dual tasks

Introduction: Executive functions play a fundamental role in walking by integrating information from cognitive-motor pathways. Subtle changes in brain and behavior may help identify older adults who are more susceptible to executive function deficits with advancing age due to prefrontal cortex deterioration. This study aims to examine how older adults mitigate executive demands while walking during cognitively demanding tasks. Methods: Twenty healthy older adults (M = 71.8 years, SD = 6.4) performed simple reaction time (SRT), go/no-go (GNG), n-back (NBK), and double number sequence (DNS) cognitive tasks of increasing difficulty while walking (i.e., dual task). Functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure the hemodynamic response (i.e., oxy- [HbO2] and deoxyhemoglobin [HbR]) changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during dual and single tasks (i.e., walking alone). In addition, performance was measured using gait speed (m/s), response time (s), and accuracy (% correct). Results: Using repeated measures ANOVAs, neural findings demonstrated a main effect of task such that ∆HbO2 (p =.047) and ∆HbR (p =.040) decreased between single and dual tasks. An interaction between task and cognitive difficulty (p =.014) revealed that gait speed decreased in the DNS between single and dual tasks. A main effect of task in response time indicated that the SRT response time was faster than all other difficulty levels (p <.001). Accuracy performance declined between single and dual tasks (p =.028) and across difficulty levels (p <.001) but was not significantly different between the NBK and DNS. Conclusion: Findings suggest that a healthy older adult sample might mitigate executive demands using an automatic locomotor control strategy such that shifting conscious attention away from walking during the dual tasks resulted in decreased ∆HbO2 and ∆HbR. However, decreased prefrontal activation was inefficient at maintaining response time and accuracy performance and may be differently affected by increasing cognitive demands. © 2021 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LL

sj-docx-1-ict-10.1177_15347354241233517 – Supplemental material for Yoga Therapy as an Intervention to Improve Patient-Reported Outcomes Among Adults After Treatment for Cancer: Preliminary Findings From a Trial Using Single-Subject Experimental Design

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-ict-10.1177_15347354241233517 for Yoga Therapy as an Intervention to Improve Patient-Reported Outcomes Among Adults After Treatment for Cancer: Preliminary Findings From a Trial Using Single-Subject Experimental Design by Jennifer Brunet, Julia Hussien, Anne Pitman, Amanda Wurz, Ellen Conte, Nadia Polskaia and Dugald Seely in Integrative Cancer Therapies</p

Yoga Therapy as an Intervention to Improve Patient-Reported Outcomes Among Adults After Treatment for Cancer: Preliminary Findings From a Trial Using Single-Subject Experimental Design

Background: Cancer is a chronic condition associated with a substantial symptom burden, which can impair recovery after treatment. Investigating interventions with potential to improve self-reported disease and/or treatment effects—known as patient-reported outcomes (PROs)—is paramount to inform cancer care. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a yoga therapy (YT) intervention on key PROs (ie, cancer-related fatigue, anxiety, cognitive function, depression, stress, quality of life [QoL]) among adults after treatment for cancer. Methods: Data from 20 adults ( M age  = 55.74 years, 85% female; M time since diagnosis  = 2.83 years) who had completed treatment for cancer were analyzed for this study. In this single-subject exploratory experimental study, the YT intervention comprised a 1:1 YT session (ie, 1 participant with 1 yoga therapist) followed by 6 weekly small (ie, 2–3 participants) group YT sessions. Group sessions were facilitated by the same yoga therapist who delivered participants’ 1:1 session to ensure an in-depth personalized approach. PROs were assessed before (ie, pre-intervention) and after the 1:1 YT session (ie, during the intervention), as well as after the last group YT session (ie, post-intervention). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the data. Results: Participants showed improvements in cancer-related fatigue, state anxiety, trait anxiety, perceived cognitive impairments, impacts of perceived cognitive impairments on QoL, and 1 dimension of QoL (ie, functional wellbeing) over time. Notably, cancer-related fatigue and state anxiety increased immediately after the 1:1 session, but showed greater improvements over time afterward (ie, during the intervention phase). No changes were observed for the remaining PROs. Conclusion: Although results require confirmation in future trials, this study highlights the importance of continuing to investigate YT as an intervention to enhance important PROs (ie, cancer-related fatigue and state anxiety) after treatment for cancer. More research is needed to identify additional beneficial effects and factors that influence participants’ responses to 1:1 and group YT (ie, moderators and mediators). Registration number: ISRCTN64763228 Date of registration: December 12, 2021. This trial was registered retrospectively. URL of trial registry record: https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN64763228 Published Protocol: Brunet, J., Wurz, A., Hussien, J., Pitman, A., Conte, E., Ennis, J. K., . . . & Seely, D. (2022). Exploring the Effects of Yoga Therapy on Heart Rate Variability and Patient-Reported Outcomes After Cancer Treatment: A Study Protocol. Integrative Cancer Therapies , 21 , 15347354221075576

sj-pdf-2-ict-10.1177_15347354241233517 – Supplemental material for Yoga Therapy as an Intervention to Improve Patient-Reported Outcomes Among Adults After Treatment for Cancer: Preliminary Findings From a Trial Using Single-Subject Experimental Design

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-2-ict-10.1177_15347354241233517 for Yoga Therapy as an Intervention to Improve Patient-Reported Outcomes Among Adults After Treatment for Cancer: Preliminary Findings From a Trial Using Single-Subject Experimental Design by Jennifer Brunet, Julia Hussien, Anne Pitman, Amanda Wurz, Ellen Conte, Nadia Polskaia and Dugald Seely in Integrative Cancer Therapies</p