Gerontological Society of America

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the association between conscious monitoring and control of movements (i.e., movement specific reinvestment) and visuo-motor control during walking by older adults. Method: The Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale (MSRS; Masters, Eves, & Maxwell, 2005) was administered to ninety-two community-dwelling older adults, aged 65-81 years, who were required to walk along a 4.8-meter walkway and step on the middle of a target as accurately as possible. Participants’ movement kinematics and gaze behavior were measured during approach to the target and when stepping on it. Results: High scores on the MSRS were associated with prolonged stance and double support times during approach to the stepping target, and less accurate foot placement when stepping on the target. No associations between MSRS and gaze behavior were observed. Discussion: Older adults with a high propensity for movement specific reinvestment seem to need more time to “plan” future stepping movements, yet show worse stepping accuracy than older adults with a low propensity for movement specific reinvestment. Future research should examine whether older adults with a higher propensity for reinvestment are more likely to display movement errors that lead to fallin

Transfer and retention effects of gait training with anterior-posterior perturbations to postural responses after medio-lateral gait perturbations in older adults

Background: Gait perturbations, occurring in any direction in daily life, may result in a fall. In fall prevention, gait perturbation training is a promising approach. Treadmill perturbations in anterior-posterior direction can easily be applied by accelerations or decelerations of the belt, but it is unknown whether training effects transfer to reactive recovery in medio-lateral direction. We aimed to evaluate the transfer and retention effects of gait training with treadmill perturbations in anterior-posterior direction to medio-lateral reactive recovery. Methods: 30 community dwelling older adults (>65 years) participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to a treadmill training session either with 16 anterior-posterior perturbations or with treadmill walking. The assessments contained a walking trial with 4 anterior-posterior and 4 medio-lateral perturbations. Deviations in trunk velocity from unperturbed walking were summed over the first three strides after perturbation as a measure of recovery. Findings: An exposure to gait perturbations during the baseline assessment led to significant improvement of recovery responses. For anterior-posterior perturbations, both groups showed better recovery immediately and 1-week post-intervention, and no group x time interaction was found. For medio-lateral perturbations, both groups showed better recovery immediately and 1-week post-intervention, and again no group × time interaction. Interpretation: Baseline assessment with perturbations in anterior-posterior and medio-lateral directions caused significant improvements that were retained. Short-term training can be effective in dynamic stabilization of one's trunk, but our findings do not exclude that multi-directional perturbations may be needed