The age-related differences in temporal characteristics of head control in response to postural perturbations
Fall-related traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among older adults. Previous studies found that the declines of neck musculature with advanced age may be related to compromised head control that may elevate the risk of fall-related TBIs. However, a better understanding of age-related differences in head control is necessary to develop targeted TBI screening measures in older adults. Therefore, this study quantified the temporal characteristics of head control and examined the age-related differences of head control in response to external postural perturbations. Overall, 57 participants were grouped based on age. Twenty Young (18-30 years old), 23 Young-Old (60-74 years old), and 14 Old-Old (75-89 years old) participants completed three trials of unexpected platform translations in the anterior and posterior directions for a total of six trials in the randomized order, in which linear head acceleration of head and C7 were recorded. Resultant head acceleration and head jerk of isolated head segment was computed and applied to extract temporal features of head control. A non-parametric approach equivalent to a mixed-designed ANOVA was applied to determine the main effects of age group and order of trials. All age groups had similar head acceleration onset and head re-stabilization time, but Young adults had a significantly smaller number of zero-crossing than Young-Old and Old-Old adults. Old-Old adults also had much more cases that failed to return back to pre-perturbation levels in head jerk than the other two populations. All age groups indicated adaptation patterns over trials, but that in Old-Old groups was relatively random. This research illustrated that the control efficiency of head control declines with increased age, particularly in older adults over 75 years of age. Findings in this study may serve as a foundation for the development of targeted fall-related TBI screening measures and protocols in older adults and evaluation of novel mitigation strategies to help address the rise of fall-related TBIs.
Older adults, head control, Traumatic brain injuries.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign