Is Allocation of Attention Impaired in Fallers Compared to Non-Fallers? An Event-Related Potential Study

Approximately 30% of older adults experience one or more falls annually. The ability to properly allocate attention may be a risk factor falls. Our study examined whether older adults (aged 58-79) with a history of falls, allocated attention differently to auditory distractor stimuli compared to those without a history of falls, and whether such differences subsequently altered cognitive processing of visual target stimuli. We examined allocation of attention using event-related potentials (ERPs) as participants responded to visual targets while ignoring task-irrelevant auditory distractors. A posterior to anterior shift in electrical brain activity was exaggerated in the faller group compared to the non-faller group when cognitively processing the visual target stimuli. This suggests differences in the way stimuli are cognitively processed and classified between fallers and non-fallers. Keywords: falls, attention, allocation, risk, EEG, ERP, cross-modal, older adults.

Name thesis:degree_name

M Sc

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Kinesiology

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Parrot-Migas, Phil

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nagamatsu, Lindsay S.

• falls
• attention
• older adults
• brain
• ERP

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/27637

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/27637