Age-Related Differences in Cortical and Subcortical Activities during Observation and Motor Imagery of Dynamic Postural Tasks: An fMRI Study.

ABSTRACT: Age-related changes in brain activation other than in the primary motor cortex are not well known with respect to dynamic balance control. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore age-related differences in the control of static and dynamic postural tasks using fMRI during mental simulation of balance tasks. For this purpose, 16 elderly (72 ± 5 years) and 16 young adults (27 ± 5 years) were asked to mentally simulate a static and a dynamic balance task by motor imagery (MI), action observation (AO), or the combination of AO and MI (AO + MI). Age-related differences were detected in the form of larger brain activations in elderly compared to young participants, especially in the challenging dynamic task when applying AO + MI. Interestingly, when MI (no visual input) was contrasted to A

SUBMITTER: Mouthon A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5872650 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature