Motor flexibility to stabilize the toe position during obstacle crossing in older adults: an investigation using an uncontrolled manifold analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

An age-related decrease in the ability to exploit the abundant degrees of freedom of the body, referred to as motor flexibility, leads to a heightened fall risk. The present study investigated motor flexibility to stabilize the toe position during obstacle crossing in older adults and its correlation with the magnitude of foot elevation.

Methods

Twenty-six older adults (70.9 ± 7.4 years old) and 21 younger adults (25.4 ± 5.0 years old) walked and crossed an obstacle, during which the dominant limb was always the leading limb. An uncontrolled manifold (UCM) analysis was used to quantify the flexibility during obstacle crossing as the synergy index, with the vertical toe position being regarded as the performance variable and the segment angles of the lower limbs

SUBMITTER: Suda Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10995316 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature