Postural Strategy in Elderly, Middle-Aged, and Young People during Local Vibratory Stimulation for Proprioceptive Inputs

Abstract

Proprioceptive input may greatly affect postural stability. However, the proprioceptive postural strategy in elderly, middle-aged, and young people has not been investigated sufficiently. Hence, in this study, we aimed to investigate differences in proprioceptive postural strategies of elderly, middle-aged, and young people. The center of pressure displacement was determined in 23 elderly, 23 middle-aged, and 23 young people during upright stance on a balance board with their eyes closed. Vibratory stimulations at 30, 60, and 240 Hz were applied to the lumbar multifidus (LM) and gastrocnemius (GS) muscles to evaluate the contributions of different proprioceptive signals used in balance control. Compared with middle-aged and young people, elderly people showed a high dependence on postural control of the GS at 30 Hz (p-values: Young and elderly: 0.033; middle-aged and elderly: 0.001). Moreover, compared with young people, elderly people were more dependent on postural control of the LM at 240 Hz (p = 0.016). There were no significant differences with respect to the GS at 60 and 240 Hz, and with respect to the LM at 30 and 60 Hz between the elderly, young, and middle-aged people. Thus, the postural control strategy of elderly people depends on the GS at 30 Hz.

Investigation of the Functional Decline in Proprioceptors for Low Back Pain Using the Sweep Frequency Method

“…This result supports that the NSLBP group relied more on LM input in the Vater-Pacini corpuscles for postural control. These results agree well with those of previous studies where significant differences in postural sways were found between elderly individuals and healthy young adults during quiet standing conditions [25]. Moreover, a decreasing trend in the proprioceptive function in lower leg was observed in the NSLBP group.…”

Relationship Between Postural Stability and Falls Risk in Elderly People with Lumbar Spondylosis During Local Vibratory Stimulation for Proprioception: A Cross-sectional Study

“…Among the risk factors for falls, the postural strategy with an RPW at 30 Hz is considered an important risk factor. Additionally, trunk proprioceptive deficits have been attributed to reduced lumbosacral proprioception, which might be a causative factor in elderly people's postural sway during instability [27,28,29]. Thus, these results showed that fallers used the ankle strategy more to maintain an upright position, whereas non-fallers predominantly used both the ankle and hip strategies during vibratory stimulation of muscle spindles.…”

Association Between Back Muscle Strength and Proprioception or Mechanoreceptor Control Strategy in Postural Balance in Elderly Adults with Lumbar Spondylosis

“…COP excursion was recorded using a balance board (Wii; Nintendo Co., Ltd., Kyoto, Japan) [5,[16][17][18][23][24][25]. Balance board data were acquired using a sampling frequency of 100 Hz and calculated using MATLAB (MathWorks, Inc., Natick, MA, USA).…”

“…Each subject's COP excursion was measured under six conditions, that is, two muscles × three frequencies of vibratory stimulation: 1 LM. The measurement time was 30 s, which was divided into two intervals of 15 s each [5,[16][17][18]. Vibratory stimulation was applied to the participants during the last 15 s. We labeled the first 15 s as "Pre" and the last 15 s as "During."…”

“…The relationship between back muscle strength and the adaptive proprioception and mechanoreceptor responses to changing vibratory stimulations has not yet been clearly established. Local vibration, which is known to be a strong stimulus for Meissner corpuscles, muscle spindles, and Vater-Pacini corpuscles, has been used to assess the role of proprioception or mechanoreceptors in postural control [5][6][7][8][9][10][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Investigating the specific role of proprioception and mechanoreceptors during stimulation is essential to gain insight into the variability of postural control strategies and the possible relationship between impaired proprioception or mechanoreceptors and back muscle strength.…”