INCREASING REAL-WORLD PARTICIPATION AND COGNITIVE VITALITY THROUGH POSTURAL TRAINING

WHY IS POSTURAL CONTROL ASSOCIATED WITH COGNITIVE DECLINE?

OUR RESEARCH APPROACH

Maintaining postural control is an automated but highly demanding task for the brain that requires the integration of various sensory information and predictive motor processing. In addition, postural deficits limit real-world participation, which can be seen, for example, in the limitations of patients with vestibular symptoms. Therefore, postural deficits can have a negative impact on cognition, either directly through reduced demands on the brain, or indirectly through reduced real-world participation and thereby decreased cognitive, motor, and social stimulation. Dynamic balance training has been shown to induce neural adaptations in the superior frontal cortex and balance performance improvements are associated with inter-individual differences in cortical morphology and plasticity. Given the critical role of the superior frontal brain regions for cognitive control, we hypothesize that strengthening postural control in the elderly and in patients will improve not only real-world participation but also cognitive performance mediated by the overlapping neural circuits.

We will test novel balance training interventions for healthy elderly people and patients with vestibular deficits. Using adaptive training strategies, longitudinal high-resolution neuroimaging and remote measurements of cognition ability and participation in the real-world, our aim is to unravel the complex interactions between postural deficits and cognitive vitality. With a novel closed-loop posturography system equipped with the force sensors and a real-time controllable plate, a patient's subtle movements and postural changes along with the associated sensory contributions can be analysed. Adaptive postural training is going to target the proactive components (i.e. the ability of a person to detect and adapt their posture or gait to avoid a potential threat to balance) as well as the reactive components (i.e. the ability of a person to resist disturbances without losing balance) of posture and gait control.