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Title
  • en Decrease in force control among older adults under unpredictable conditions
Creator
Accessrights open access
Rights
  • en © 2022. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
  • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
  • en Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Subject
  • Other en Aging
  • Other en Ankle muscles
  • Other en Electromyography
  • Other en Muscle strength
  • Other en Motor control
  • NDC 490
Description
  • Abstract en Objectives: Falls in older adults generally occur during unpredictable situations. Controlling posture through finetuned muscle force before and after falls is necessary to avoid serious injuries. However, details regarding force control among older adults during unpredictable situations are unclear. This study determined the features of force control in a random force-tracking task among older adults. Methods: Ten healthy older adults (67-76 years) and eight healthy young adults (20-23 years) participated in three force-tracking tasks with ankle plantar flexion: low-range (LR), high-range (HR), and pseudo-random (PR) force tasks. Force control ability was assessed using the root mean square error (RMSE) between the target and muscle forces produced by the participants. Muscle activities from the lateral head of the gastrocnemius and the tibialis anterior during each task were measured using surface electromyography to calculate the co-contraction index (CCI). Results: In all tasks, older adults (RMSEs: 1.09-3.70, CCIs: 29.4-56.4) had a significantly greater RMSEs and CCIs than young adults (RMSEs: 0.49-1.83, CCIs: 11.7-20.6; all, p < 0.05). The RMSEs during force generation were significantly greater than those during force release (LR: p < 0.01, HR: p 0.05), except for the random forcetracking task in older adults. CCIs during the force release phase in both groups (older adults: 27.8-56.4, young adults: 15.0-20.6) were consistently greater than those during force generation (older adults: 24.5-50.4, young adults: 11.7-17.2). CCIs in force-tracing tasks differed in older adults, whereas those in the random force-tracing task increased. RMSEs and CCIs in the random and LR force-tracing tasks were significantly negatively correlated with the functional reach test (all: r 0.5, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Force control in older adults declines in low-band and random muscle force output. Moreover, increased CCIs in older adults are particularly pronounced during unpredictable situations.
Publisher en Elsevier
Date
    Issued2022-02-01
Language
  • eng
Resource Type journal article
Version Type AM
Identifier HDL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/87827
Relation
  • isVersionOf DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2021.111649
  • PMID 34875350
Journal
    • PISSN 0531-5565
      • en Experimental gerontology
      • Volume Number158 Page Start111649
File
Oaidate 2024-10-19