Vestibular contributions to balance control during stair negotiation versus walking and changes with aging.

ABSTRACT: Falls on stairs become more likely with age, partly due to deterioration of the sensorimotor systems essential to balance. The vestibular system, critical for balance control, experiences significant deterioration losing up to 40% of its motion-sensing hair cells by age 70. Signal transmittance also appears to increasingly act like a low-pass filter with age, due to several potential mechanisms. This study aimed to explore the vestibular contributions to balance control during stair negotiation to determine if aging increases reliance on low-frequency vestibular signals similar to standing during dynamic tasks. We hypothesized that older adults would exhibit greater low-frequency vestibular stimulus correlated responses than younger adults during walking and stair negotiation. Fifteen youn

SUBMITTER: Kern A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12360988 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature