Nigrostriatal dopaminergic integrity in relation to prefrontal cortex activity and gait performance during dual-task walking in older adults.

ABSTRACT: Greater walking automaticity facilitates maintenance of gait speed without prefrontal cortex (PFC) resources. Brain aging may cause shifts to more attentional gait with greater engagement of the PFC. Nigrostriatal dopaminergic integrity likely facilitates walking automaticity and maintenance of gait speed during attentional dual-tasks. Older adults (n=201; age=74.9; 63.2% women, gait speed=1.10 m/s) completed a dual-task protocol of saying every other letter of the alphabet while walking. PFC activation was measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Four groups were defined based on PFC activation (increased during dual-task, PFC+, or not, PFC-) and gait speed performance (maintained during dual-task, gait+, or slowed, gait-). To compare nigrostriatal dopaminergic integrity across

SUBMITTER: Rosso AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11908329 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature