Age affects the latency of the erector spinae response to sudden loading

Recovery from forward loss of balance in young and older adults using the stepping strategy

“…However, because greater trunk flexion was accompanied by a smaller step length in older compared to young adults, no agerelated differences in P CM were detected. The age-related increase in trunk flexion may reflect decreased muscle strength, decreased rate and/or amplitude of neuro-mechanical responses in spinal and/or hip extensor muscles [27], or could reflect an attempt to reduce the internal knee extension moment during the landing phase [28]. Similarly the smaller knee flexion angle adopted during the landing phase in older compared to young adults observed in this study could reflect an age-related reduction in knee extensor strength.…”

Trunk muscle coactivation is tuned to changes in task dynamics to improve responsiveness in a seated balance task

“…In terms of clinical implications, now that baseline measures for a healthy population have been established, the study protocol can now be applied to populations where motor control responsiveness may be limited. Back pain and elderly populations that have been shown to have longer reflex delays are obvious candidates for this type of investigation (Radebold et al, 2000(Radebold et al, , 2001Magnusson et al, 1996;Wilder et al, 1996;Reeves et al, 2005;Hwang et al, 2008). Furthermore, application and refinement of neuromuscular modeling could be used to give insight into the source of impairment in afflicted groups, which can then be used to guide treatment.…”

Vision for Motor Performance in Virtual Environments Across the Lifespan

“…These tissue changes then result in a myriad of functional changes within the central nervous system (CNS). There is a general deterioration of motor planning capabilities (Sterr & Dean, 2008;Yan, Thomas, & Stelmach, 1998) and feed-forward anticipatory control (Hwang et al, 2008) with aging. Along with this decrease in planning ability, there also appears to be slowing of central processing (Chaput & Proteau, 1996;Inui, 1997;Light, 1990;Shields et al, 2005).…”