Activation Characteristics Of Frontal Cortex In Older Adults During Turning

PURPOSE: Turning and walking usually pose a high risk of falls among older adults, which require the involvement of the cerebral cortices and the musculoskeletal system. Previous studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex activation was increased during simple or complex straight walking in healthy older adults. Furthermore, compared to young individuals, prefrontal cortex activation was increased during the early stage of turning in healthy older adults. However, the frontal and parietal cortices activation in older adults were not reported. The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences of the prefrontal cortex and the motor cortex activation during straight walking and turning of older adults. METHODS: 20 healthy participants (69 ± 3 years) were recruited. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was The Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) used was a 20-channel portable device (Shimadzu, Japan, LIGHTNIRS) with 13.3 Hz frequency, which used to accessed oxy-hemoglobin concentration in the prefrontal and motor cortex. Straight walking and 8-figure turn walking tasks were performed randomly. One task contains three tests, which was lasting 30 seconds, and contains a 30-second interval. Homer2 software was used to processed data. Paired t-tests were used, p < 0.05 was considered significance. RESULTS: Compared to straight walking, activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal area, frontal pole area, and ventrolateral prefrontal area were increased (p < 0.046) during turning walking of older adults. Additionally, activation in the motor area was increased, although it was not statistically significant (p = 0.037). CONCLUSIONS: The activation of the prefrontal and motor cortex was significantly increased during turning walking of older adults compared to straight walking. National Natural Science Foundation of China (12102235)