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Complexity of human postural control in young and older adults during prolonged standing

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Abstract

Aging is known to have a degrading influence on many structures and functions of the human sensorimotor system. The present work assessed aging-related changes in postural sway using fractal and complexity measures of the center of pressure (COP) dynamics with the hypothesis that complexity and fractality decreases in the older individuals. Older subjects (68 ± 4 years) and young adult subjects (28 ± 7 years) performed a quiet stance task (60 s) and a prolonged standing task (30 min) where subjects were allowed to move freely. Long-range correlations (fractality) of the data were estimated by the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA); changes in entropy were estimated by the multi-scale entropy (MSE) measure. The DFA results showed that the fractal dimension was lower for the older subjects in comparison to the young adults but the fractal dimensions of both groups were not different from a 1/f noise, for time intervals between 10 and 600 s. The MSE analysis performed with the typically applied adjustment to the criterion distance showed a higher degree of complexity in the older subjects, which is inconsistent with the hypothesis that complexity in the human physiological system decreases with aging. The same MSE analysis performed without adjustment showed no differences between the groups. Taken all results together, the decrease in total postural sway and long-range correlations in older individuals are signs of an adaptation process reflecting the diminishing ability to generate adequate responses on a longer time scale.

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Acknowledgments

This work was made possible by a grant from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, FAPESP/Brazil awarded to Marcos Duarte (04/10917-0). Dagmar Sternad was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0450218) and the National Institutes of Health (RO1-HD045639).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical Education and Sport, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Marcos Duarte

  2. Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Biosciences, Pennsylvania State University, 266 Rec Hall, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Dagmar Sternad

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  1. Marcos Duarte
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  2. Dagmar Sternad
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Correspondence to Dagmar Sternad.

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Duarte, M., Sternad, D. Complexity of human postural control in young and older adults during prolonged standing. Exp Brain Res 191, 265–276 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1521-7

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