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The effects of aging on the distribution and strength of correlated neural inputs to postural muscles during unperturbed bipedal stance

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Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of aging on the distribution of common descending neural drives to main postural muscles acting on the ankle, knee, hip, and lower trunk. The presence, distribution, and strength of these drives were assessed using intermuscular coherence estimations at a low-frequency band (0–55 Hz). Ten healthy older adults (68.7 ± 3.5 years) with no recent history of falls and ten healthy younger adults (26.8 ± 2.7 years) performed bipedal stances with eyes either opened or closed. Electromyographic (EMG) signals of six postural muscles were recorded. Estimations of intermuscular coherence were obtained from fifteen muscle pairs and four muscle groups. In general, single-pair and pooled coherence analyzes revealed significant levels of signal synchronization within 1–10 Hz. Significant common drives to anterior, posterior, and antagonist muscle groups were observed for both cohorts of participants. However, older participants showed significantly stronger EMG–EMG synchronization in the frequency domain compared to younger participants. It seems that age-related sarcopenia, visual-vestibular-proprioceptive decline, cortical activation increase, presynaptic inhibition modulation decrease, and co-contraction increase had a major impact on strengthening the common drives to the aforementioned muscle groups. Differently from young adults, the absence of visual inputs did not reduce the magnitude of signal synchronization in older adults. These results suggest that the aging central nervous system seems to organize similar arrangements of common drives to postural antagonist muscles at different joints, and to postural muscles pushing the body either forward or backward when visual information is not available.

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Acknowledgements

All participants for their voluntary cooperation in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy, Western Michigan University, 1903 West Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008-5383, USA

    Adriana M. Degani & Alessander Danna-dos-Santos

  2. Unified Clinics, Western Michigan University, 1000 Oakland Dr, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008-5383, USA

    Adriana M. Degani

  3. School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, 59812-4680, USA

    Charles T. Leonard

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  1. Adriana M. Degani
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Correspondence to Adriana M. Degani.

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Degani, A.M., Leonard, C.T. & Danna-dos-Santos, A. The effects of aging on the distribution and strength of correlated neural inputs to postural muscles during unperturbed bipedal stance. Exp Brain Res 238, 1537–1553 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05837-4

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